


Sent to the Witch

by Marcus_S_Lazarus



Series: Sent to the Witch [1]
Category: Angel: the Series, Charmed (TV 1998)
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 34
Words: 138,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23650096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marcus_S_Lazarus/pseuds/Marcus_S_Lazarus
Summary: After acquiring her witch powers, Paige finds herself receiving some unexpected assistance from a mysterious man known only as 'Angel' as she explores her new destiny...
Relationships: Angel/Paige Matthews, Phoebe Halliwell/Cole Turner, Piper Halliwell/Leo Wyatt
Series: Sent to the Witch [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1702660
Kudos: 6





	1. Whistler

**Author's Note:**

> This is set just a few months before ‘Charmed Again’, so Paige isn’t a witch yet. Also, in this reality, Buffy Summers was never called as a Slayer- the Slayer line jumped a track and went straight on to Kendra in this dimension- so Angel was never ‘sent’ to help Buffy learn how to be a Slayer

The vampire formerly known as Angelus, Scourge of Europe, sighed as he stepped up to a trashcan and began to go through it. A man walked past him and on down the street, but, despite the fresh blood singing from the human’s veins, Angelus wasn’t even tempted; he’d forsaken human blood almost a century ago. Having found nothing in the bin, Angelus made his way into a nearby alley with slow, laboured steps, his long dirty hair hanging down around his face.

Tired and weak, Angelus staggered into a concrete post at the side of the alley and stopped. He coughed and rolled around to lean with his back against the post, just breathing for a moment…

And then he sniffed.

Something was there.

He searched the alley with his eyes and then his eyes fell on it. It was a rat, scampering across to the other side of the alley. He took a couple of unsteady steps, brushed the hair from his face and began to stalk the rat. He knew it was a low move for survival, but when the alternative was human flesh, he had no choice.

The rat reached the other side and disappeared into a pile of trashcans and bags. Angelus dived after it, scattering the cans and bags noisily…

And all for nothing; the rat had run away when the clattering began.

As Angelus sat there, staring blearily up at the night sky, a man came into the alley behind him.

“God, you’re pathetic,” the man said, attracting Angelus’s attention.

Rolling his eyes slightly, Angelus glanced in the man’s direction. The man was about average height, maybe a head or so shorter than Angel, and wearing a brown jacket and trousers, as well as a brown hat, that clashed horribly with the vivid green-and-black patterned shirt he wore underneath.

In the old days, Angelus might have attacked him for the insult, but now he just glanced down at himself.

“This is really an unforgettable smell,” the man commented, as he walked further into the alley, looking at Angel all the while. “This is the stench of death you're giving off here. And the look says, uh...” he faltered, waving his hand as though seeking the correct term, before clicking his fingers, pointing at Angel, and saying, “Crazy Homeless Guy.”

He shook his head. “It's not good.”

“Get away from me,” Angelus muttered, as he turned around to look down the alley again. Maybe he’d find another rat…

“What are you gonna do, bite me?” the man asked jokingly. Then, before Angelus could assume his ‘game face’ and convince the man to leave him alone, the man gasped and jumped back. “Horrors! A vampire!”

Angelus looked at him in surprise.

What _was_ this guy?

“Ah,” the man said, shaking his head slightly as he looked at Angel, “but you wouldn't bite me on account of your poor, tortured soul. It's so sad, a vampire with a soul. It's so poignant.”

“Who are you?” Angelus asked, starting to feel _very_ confused by the way things were going…

“Let's take a walk,” the man said, offering Angelus a hand to haul him back onto his feet.

* * *

  
A short while later, the two of them were walking along the sidewalk, before the man turned into the street to cross to the hotdog stand on the other side. Angelus, as nonchalant about his personal safety as ever, wasn't really paying any attention to the traffic, leaving his strange companion to grab the vampire’s arm to stop him.

“What are you eating?” the man asked, as he and Angel finished their trek across the road. “Like, a rat once a month?"

Angelus strayed and almost walked into another car; if this man was just here to make fun of his eating habits, he wasn’t interested in sticking around. But to no avail; the man grabbed him again and pulled him back in time.

“Hey!” the man yelled at the car, which merely honked once at them before they continued. “Look,” he said, turning to look back at Angelus, “you're skin and bones here! You’ve got better alternatives, you know; butcher shops are throwing away more blood in a day than you could stand. _Good_ blood.”

He glared over at Angelus, as though the vampire had just inquired as to the way to his own head. “You lived in the world a little bit, you'd know that.”

They finally reached the other side of the road, and Angelus turned to look at his strange acquaintance.

“I want to know who you are,” he said simply.

The man stopped and turned to face him.

“And I want to know who _you_ are,” he replied.

“You already do,” Angelus said, shrugging dismissively.

The other man shook his head. “Not yet,” he said simply. “But I'm looking to find out. 'Cause you could go either way here.”

“I don't understand you,” Angelus said, maintaining a blank expression despite his growing confusion.

“Nobody understands me,” the man replied, before chuckling slightly. “That's _my_ curse.”

Angelus didn’t need to ask why the man had emphasised the word ‘curse’; evidently, he knew _how_ Angelus possessed a soul, unlike his counterparts.

The man stepped over to the street vendor and pulled out some cash.“Dog me,” he said to the man. “Mustard.”

He watched the vendor get out the hotdog and squirt on some mustard, before briefly looking back at Angel. “My name's Whistler,” he added, before accepting the hot dog from the man. “Thanks,” he said, handing over a bill before turning back to Angel. “Anyway, lately it is.” He chewed casually on the hot dog.

Angelus looked down at Whistler inquiringly. “You're not a vampire,” he said, after a few moments.

“A demon,” Whistler said casually, then raising the hand that wasn’t holding the hot dog in a defensive manner, noticing Angelus having visibly tensed up. “ _Technically_. I mean, I'm not your stereotypical bad guy. Not _all_ demons are dedicated to the destruction of all life.”

Angelus could only nod; he’d certainly encountered enough in his life to believe that. “What do you mean, I can go either way?” he asked, looking back at Whistler.

“I mean,” Whistler explained, as he continued to chew on the hot dog, “that you can become an even more useless rodent than you already are, or you can become someone. A person. Someone to be counted.”

Angelus shrugged and turned away. “I just want to be left alone,” he muttered over his shoulder as he began to walk.

“Well, yeah,” Whistler said, as Angelus began to turn around a nearby corner, “you've been left alone for, what, ninety years already?”

As Angelus stopped and turned back, Whistler grinned and continued. “And what a package you are. The Stink Guy!”

Angel sighed, turned around, walked back towards Whistler, and stared the other demon in the face. “What do you want from me?” he asked bluntly; if this guy wouldn’t take a hint, Angelus might as well find out what was so important.

“I want you to see something,” Whistler said simply.

He gave Angelus an intense look, but Angelus just looked back at him blankly, giving no hints about what was going on inside.

“We'd have to leave now,” Whistler said to the vampire. “You see, and then you tell me what you want to do.”

Angelus sighed. He might as well humour this lunatic…“Where is it?” he asked.

* * *

  
A few hours later, the two demons stood in the shadow of an alleyway, watching the building opposite them. It was a social work centre, near the end of the day, and two women were just walking out of it. One of them, a tall blonde woman, didn’t really interest Angel, but the other woman was somehow more appealing to him. She was slightly shorter than the other, but only by about half a head, with shoulder-length black hair and skin so pale he might have assumed she was a vampire if it wasn’t for the fact that she was in the sunlight.

“So, Paige, available for a party tonight?” the redhead said, looking over at the other woman. “I was thinking of checking out that new place; you know, P3? Sounds pretty good.”

‘Paige’ nodded. “Yeah, sure thing,” she said, nodding at the other woman. “Just don’t forget; I won’t be drinking anything stronger than sparkling water.”

“Yeah, I know; the alcohol thing,” the woman said, patting ‘Paige’ reassuringly on the shoulder. “Don’t worry; I’ll make sure everyone else knows it too.”

Angelus looked over at Whistler curiously.

“The point?” he asked.

Whistler smiled. “Elementary, my dear Watson,” he said, indicating Paige. “That young woman there, in around…” he paused and checked his watch before continuing, “four month’s time, is going to become the newest member of the Charmed Ones.”

Angelus froze.

The Charmed Ones? He’d heard of them, of course, but only in legend…

Then he looked over at Whistler in confusion.

“In four months?” he asked. “I thought Melinda Warren’s prophecy was that all three sisters would receive their powers at once?”

“Correct, but, well, the prophecy failed to factor in the possibility of one of the Charmed Ones being rendered inactive after taking on their powers,” Whistler explained, sighing sadly as he and Angelus looked back at Paige, now walking off towards a green VW Beetle. “Some of the higher-ups got an inkling that something’s going to happen to one of the sisters soon, but we don’t know precisely when, how, or what.”

He jerked a thumb in Paige’s direction. “All we know for sure is, she’s the new girl; shares the same mother, but father’s a Whitelighter, so, naturally, the mom hid her away from the Elders.”

Angelus looked at Whistler in confusion.

“But… if the Elders _don’t_ know about her, than how…?” he asked.

“My bosses are a little… _bigger_ than the Elders, shall we say?” Whistler said casually. “We can’t do much, but we try our best.”

He sighed again, as he indicated the direction that Paige was currently driving in. “She's gonna have it tough, that witch. She's practically just a kid. The world's full of big, bad things…”

He looked up at Angelus, as though to make sure that the vampire got what he was about to say. “And the other two have much more experience at this game than she does.”

Angelus nodded. He knew how much experience counted when fighting the undead and the demons of the world; he’d faced countless monster hunters who’d rarely known what they were dealing with, and had been eliminated easily.

True, the experienced ones hadn’t lasted that long either, but he could excuse that; without sounding arrogant, he _had_ been a dangerous adversary back in the day…

“I want to help her,” he said eventually. Whistler looked up at him from where he was chewing on a recently purchased burger, and Angelus continued. “I want... I want to become someone.”

“God, jeez, look at you,” Whistler muttered, through a mouthful of burger and mustard. “I knew she was good, but I didn’t think she’d be _that_ hot.”

Angelus looked away; given how much Whistler had seemed to know so far, the demon probably knew that Angelus had killed more than his fair share of witches as well as other monster hunters. No matter how much he’d tried to stay away from magic, it always seemed to come back to haunt him…

Right up to the curse that left him in this condition.

Whistler sighed, tossed the burger into a nearby rubbish bin, and walked over to look Angelus directly in the eyes. “This isn't gonna be easy. The more you live in this world, the more you see how apart from it you really are.” His tone became sterner as he continued. “And this is dangerous work. Right now,” he said, indicating Angel’s dirty and torn clothes, “you couldn't go three rounds with a fruit fly!”

Angelus merely straightened up slightly and looked back at Whistler. “I want to learn from you,” he said simply.

Whistler nodded. “Alright,” he said.

Angelus glared briefly at Whistler. “But I don't want to dress like you.”

He turned around and began to walk away from the alley, towards a nearby building that Whistler had pointed out to him earlier.

Whistler sighed. “Again, you're annoying me,” he said despairingly, as he began to walk after the vampire. “You're lucky we need you on our side…”


	2. Charmed and Changed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When this chapter begins, it’s set _just_ around the end of ‘Charmed Again, Part One’- in other words, as Angel stands there thinking, Paige is helping Piper and Phoebe vanquish Shax after having her powers activated

A few months later, Angelus stood in an alley a short distance from Halliwell Manor, watching the street before him with a patience and stillness that almost made him look like a statue. He was now dressed in far more stylish clothes; a black leather duster, black trousers, and a dark red shirt that was almost the colour of blood.

He knew that he would still need a bit of work when it came to relating to people in this new world, but, under Whistler’s patient tutoring, coupled with a regular supply of blood from the butcher’s, he had regained his old skills, and was now far stronger than he had been when the two of them had met. He still wouldn’t win a fight with a vampire much older than a hundred, but it was all a matter of time and practice.

He was just grateful that, right now, he didn’t need to worry too much about the physical side of things; he’d seen Paige go into the house a few minutes ago, and shortly afterwards, he’d felt an immense sweep of good magic come from the house. It hadn’t been much for him, but for a magic-based demon, it would have been the equivalent of a lighthouse in a foggy night…

And they still had that demonic assassin who’d killed the elder sister after them.

Angelus wasn’t especially concerned about that. After all, the other two sisters knew that ‘Shax’ was after them, so it wasn’t like he could take them by surprise and finish them before anyone could fight back. With the Power of Three restored, vanquishing Shax would be the work of a moment.

He was, however, pretty sure that Paige wouldn’t react well if her introduction to the magical world was vanquishing a demon. It would be hard enough to accept at the best of times, but when you started off by destroying something you knew nothing about by a means that even you weren’t entirely clear on…

He was just grateful that she’d apparently decided to walk to the house; it would have been harder to have a word with her if she drove away after the vanquish. At least this way, if he played his cards right, he had a chance.

Then he saw run out of the manor and start to run down the street towards him- or, at least, the alleyway in which he was currently situated.

He smiled.

Perfect. She wasn’t an unhealthy woman, but at the same time, by the time she’d reached his location down at the end of the street, she’d most likely have slowed down slightly to give herself time to rest…

As she got closer, he was relieved to see that his assessment was correct. He smiled slightly; he had never been more grateful for his vampire-enhanced vision than he was at this moment. He stepped back into the alleyway, concealed by the shade, and then, as she walked past him (Albeit at a faster rate than someone would walk normally), he coughed slightly to attract her attention.

She spun around to look at him, adopting what he had to admit was a credible-looking defensive posture, even if it was doubtful that she knew what to do after that.

He raised his hands in a calming gesture.

“It’s OK,” he assured her. “I know what you thought, but don’t worry; I don’t bite.”

(Which was strictly true; the fact that he _could_ if he wanted to was something he was keen to omit for the moment.)

Paige relaxed slightly, but she was still visibly tense as she stared back at him.

“Are you with them?” she asked him, jerking a thumb down the road towards Halliwell Manor. “’Cause if you are, you can tell them _I’m not interested in being a freak_!”

Angelus sighed.

“You think that’s an option anymore?” he asked her, as he looked back at her. “You’re a Charmed One; whether you want to be or not, your ‘normal’ life is over.”

He shook his head slightly as he looked at her. Whether this would work or not he wasn’t sure, but he had to try. If he recalled the rules of magic that governed the world of the Charmed Ones correctly, Paige still had a forty-eight-hour window when she could be swayed to evil if someone timed it right, and he wouldn’t put it past the Source to use her boyfriend (Angelus couldn’t suppress a slight twinge of… could it be jealousy?… at the thought) to try and influence her in his direction.

“There’s just one thing you should think about,” he said, as he continued speaking to Paige. “Ask about the past before you make any decisions about the future.”

Then he turned around and began to walk down the alleyway.

“Wait!” Paige asked, calling after him. “Who are you?”

Angelus looked back, trying to decide on the best answer to give. The truth was out of the question, but should he give her a name? And if so, what one? After all, his true name was out of the question…

He decided not to; he’d need a bit of time to think more about what name he should give.

“A friend,” he said, eventually.

“What if I don’t want a friend?” she asked.

“I never said I was yours,” Angelus replied.

Then he turned around and walked into the shadows, leaving Paige staring after him in confusion.

* * *

  
A few hours later, Paige was standing in front of a large church, looking around herself nervously as she stared at her mobile phone. After her strange meeting in the alley, she’d continued walking for a time, but had eventually gone back to her apartment rather than check in on Shane or call in to work. She knew she probably should have done both- there was this case at home that she _really_ felt she should check up on- but that guy’s advice to ‘ask about the past’ before making any decisions had made a point; she probably _should_ try and check up on her origins a bit more before she made any decisions regarding him. She’d called her aunt to confirm that her location was accurate, and had then taken her car to the church in question.

Taking a deep breath, she walked through the church door, her eyes falling on a nun standing near the door.

“Excuse me?” Paige asked, walking over to the nun. “Are you Sister Agnes?”

“Yes,” the nun answered, before looking over at Paige inquiringly. “And who might you be?“

"Oh, I'm Paige,” Paige said, smiling slightly sheepishly. “Paige Matthews. You might not remember me; I probably changed a little bit since you last saw me on August 2nd 1977. Does that ring any bells?”

“Oh, dear Lord…” Sister Agnes said, staring at Paige in sudden recognition. Then she took Paige’s hand. “Come with me; there is something that you should see.”

Leading Paige by the arm, Agnes took Paige to a small office in another part of the church. Letting go of Paige’s hand, Agnes opened a large trunk and retrieved a small box from it, which she then put on the table.

“I was just about your age, when they came,” she said, looking back at Paige with a small smile.

“They?” Paige asked eagerly. “My mother and my father?”

Sister Agnes nodded. “They came in a swirl of bright white lights, just like…”  
She shrugged. “Well… angels.”

“White lights?” Paige said in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Well, that's how they appeared, with you in their arms!” Agnes said, smiling slightly at the memory in a fond manner. “I was stunned. I- I didn't know what to think. They said that you were in great danger, that they had no other choice but to give you up, to protect you.”

“Danger?” Paige asked, leaning forward eagerly; this story was getting more interesting by the minute, and it hadn’t exactly been boring to start with. “What kind of danger?”

“Well, they didn't say,” Agnes said apologetically. “But I could tell from their pain that it must be very real. They asked me to find you a good home, a safe home, and to keep their secret… until you came looking.”

“But how could they know?” Paige asked.

“Because you come from them, my dear,” Agnes replied, as though it was obvious. “As wonderful and precious as your adoptive parents were to you, you still come from angels.”

She reached into the small box on the table, and pulled out a blanket with a P on it.Paige’s heart nearly stopped. That blanket… it looked just about large enough to wrap a baby in…

“They asked me to save this for you for this day,” Sister Agnes explained, as she indicated the blanket. “It's what they bundled you up in.”

Paige reached out and took the blanket from the nun, stroking the P with a finger.

“Your mother had only one request - that your name began with a P,” Agnes explained. She seemed about to say more, but then someone knocked on the office door and two women entered.Paige recognised them instantly.Piper and Phoebe Halliwell.

“Yes, may I help-” Agnes began, before Piper raised her hands, flicked them, and suddenly, Agnes was frozen mid-sentence.


	3. Meetings Old and New

As though nothing had happened, Piper than turned to look at Paige, an almost apologetic expression on her face. “Hey, what's up? Sorry, but we need to get you out of here.”

Paige leapt to her feet, clutching the blanket. “ What did you do to her?” she asked, indicating Sister Agnes.

“Oh, she just froze her,” Phoebe said dismissively. “She'll be fine.”

“Lucky I didn't blow her up,” Piper said. Noting Paige’s suddenly hostile expression, she raised hands again, palm upwards. “Not a deliberate thing; my powers have been a little off lately.”

“Um… pardon me?” Phoebe put in, as she pointed at the blanket that Paige was holding before looking up inquiringly at Paige. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but is that your blanket? Just, our mom used to wrap us up in blankets just like that when we were kids…”

Paige was about to make a reply- most likely a harsh and sarcastic one- to that, but something stopped her.

After all, the nun _did_ compare her parents to _angels_ , and if these two had been wrapped in identical blankets when they were babies…

Well, she’d wanted to look at her past, hadn’t she?

“Look, we know what you're going through,” Phoebe said, stepping forward and placing a hand on Paige’s shoulder. “We went through the same thing when we first found out we were witches, too.”

Piper nodded. “Yeah, we weren’t exactly jumping for joy either,” she said, before looking Paige in the eyes again apologetically. “I know this is a bit sudden, but you _have_ to trust us; somebody very, very bad is after you.”

Paige sighed; she’d been hoping the man in the alley had just been exaggerating for dramatic effect.

"So… what do I do?” she asked, looking at them curiously. “I mean, I’m not exactly Trinity, you know…”

“You don’t need to be,” Phoebe assured her. “You have a magic power, you know.”

Paige blinked incredulously.

“I have a power?” she asked.

“At least, if you're really a Charmed One, you do,” Piper replied. “And the sooner you learn it, the sooner you'll be able to protect yourself.”

Paige swallowed nervously. That was the main thing about this whole mess that she still wasn’t very sure about; the whole ‘fighting’ aspect made her more than slightly nervous.

But, then again, life wasn’t made to be easy, was it?

“Uh… can we take this outside?” she asked, indicating the still-immobile Sister Agnes. “Sorry, but this is still kinda freaking me out.”

“Oh, right; sorry,” Phoebe said apologetically, as she opened the door and the three of them stepped out into the main church, leaving Sister Agnes to recover in her own time. Paige felt kind of bad about leaving her there, but knew she had to learn to trust her sisters sometime.

“So…. What’s my power?” she asked Piper, as soon as they were in the main church, which was fortunately still deserted.

“Well, according to the prophecy, the third sister has the power to move things with her mind,” Piper explained. “Prue certainly could do it.”

“So… how does it work?” Paige asked inquiringly.

“Well, you concentrate on an object like…” phoebe began, then paused for a moment before her eyes settled on a nearby candle, “…like that candle right there,” she finished, pointing at it. “And then you just wave your arm at it,” she finished, waving the arm to demonstrate.

Shrugging, Paige tried it, but nothing happened. She looked at Piper and Phoebe inquiringly, but both of them could only shrug; evidently, they were just as confused as she was.

“Or, uh, you could squint your eyes,” Piper suggested. “She used to squint her eyes; the hand thing was just a bit more focused.”

Paige waved her hand at the candle and squinted, but, again, nothing happened to the candle. Groaning with frustration, she turned back to the others.

“Well,” she began, “maybe I'm not one of you after all if I can't even make that candle-” (She raised out her hand in the candle's direction, and, as soon as she named the object in question, the candle was surrounded by blue and white bright lights, disappeared, and reappeared in Paige's outstretched hand.

“Oh,” Paige muttered, as she stared at the candle briefly before handing it slowly to Phoebe.

“So,” Phoebe asked, as she blew out the candle and set it aside, “perhaps the Whitelighter in her makes it work differently?”

“Half-breed,” Piper explained, to Paige’s inquiring look. “Whitelighters are kinda like guardian angels to witches; our mom fell in love with her Whitelighter, and, well, you were the result.”

“Ah,” Paige said, nodding slightly in understanding. “And… was that dangerous?”

“Technically, yeah; relationships between witches and Whitelighters aren’t encouraged by some of the higher powers of magic,” Phoebe explained. “Don’t ask me why, but-”

She suddenly stopped talking as a loud screech suddenly tore through the air.

The three turned around, and, to Paige’s surprise, standing there at the door of the church, was…

“Shane?” she asked in confusion. She felt as though she should be noticing something else about him, but all she could think about was the fact that, when she’d last seen him, he’d been lying in a hospital bed in bad shape after being attacked by that… whatever it was…

So how could he be walking about now?

“Get down!” Piper called over to Phoebe and Paige as she flicked her hands at Shane. Paige nearly called out to her to stop, telling her that this wasn’t an enemy, that this was her boyfriend…

But nothing happened.Well, strictly speaking, _something_ happened; it was just evidently not what should happen. Shane was struck by some kind of blue energy, he staggered back briefly as though he’d just walked into a wind machine of some kind, and then he stood up again, apparently unaffected.

“What the…” Paige said, the question not really being directed at anybody in particular.

“The Source?” Phoebe asked, looking over at Piper inquiringly.

“Maybe,” Piper said, before she looked back at Paige. “You know this guy, right? I mean, you recognised him and all-”

“He’s my boyfriend,” Paige explained.

“Has he ever shown any sign that he’s interested in your connection to us?” Piper asked. “You know, tried to encourage you to meet us or something?”

Paige shook her head. “No, he hasn’t,” she said. “But then, _I_ didn’t even know that we were related; I had an idea, but that was it, and it was only a vague idea anyway.”

“Right; so we’re probably talking possession…” Piper muttered, as she looked back at Shane/whoever (Paige was already getting confused). “You might want to get back; if we’re right about this guy, he’s one tough cookie.”

Nodding, Paige stepped over to stand beside the… Halliwells (She couldn’t think of them as her sisters; not yet).

“OK, so… what do we do?” she asked, looking over at Piper. “Do the whole exorcist gig? You know, ‘I cast thee out, demon’ and all that?”

Phoebe smiled. “You know, Paige, that could actually work,” she said, as she looked back at Piper. “Default?”

Piper nodded. “We don’t have time to come up with something more effective,” she said, as she looked back at Paige and held out a hand. “Take my hand, and then just do what we do, OK?”

Paige nodded as she took Pier’s hand, Piper doing the same thing with Phoebe, and then the three of them locked eyes on the form in front of her.

“Just repeat after us, OK?” Phoebe said, before she and Piper began to speak.

“The Power of Three will set us free… the Power of Three will set us free… the Power of Three will set us free…”

Without realising it, Paige joined in, speaking the words that seemed so familiar and yet so new…

“The Power of Three will set us free… the Power of Three will set us free…”

“NO!” Shane/demon cried, reaching out a hand in a gesture that could have been pleading or threatening. “Please…” he begged.

It might have worked, Paige admitted, if it wasn’t for the black light that flicked around him and the monstrous face that somehow seemed to have been superimposed over Shane’s own…

She just closed her eyes and focused on the words she was speaking with her new family, now beginning to raise their voices.

“The Power of Three will set us free… _the Power of Three will set us free…THE POWER OF THREE WILL SET US FREE_ …”

“NNOOoo….!” the thing inside Shane cried, before there was a blinding blast of white light that Paige could see even _through_ her tightly-squeeze eyelids, and then nothing.

Opening her eyes, Paige was relieved to see that Shane still appeared to be breathing, and whatever had been… _possessing_ him… was gone.

“Woah…” Paige muttered, as she looked at her hands in awe. Just the day before, she’d been a perfectly normal girl, and now she’d helped to vanquish two literal _demons…_

And she wasn’t freaked out by it.

* * *

  
A couple of days later, Paige was standing outside P3, looking up at the club in a thoughtful manner. After the encounter in the church, she’d talked with Piper and Phoebe for a time, but had eventually asked for some time alone to think things over, which they’d been kind enough to give to her. Shane wasn’t seeing her anymore, unfortunately, but Paige had made her peace with that; after all, it wasn’t anyone’s fault that he’d ended up being possessed to get at her.

All she needed to decide now was what she should do. Did she go in and keep up the magic thing…?

Or just leave now and never come back?

“Things work out like you were expecting?” a voice said from behind her.

Looking over her shoulder, Paige saw, to her surprise, the man from the alley standing behind her, looking at her with a neutral expression on his face.

“You?” she asked, looking at him curiously. “What are you doing here?”

“Thought I’d check in,” he answered simply. “How did things go?”

“Um… OK, I guess,” Paige replied, curiously. “My boyfriend dumped me after he got possessed by the Source, but, hey; I got sisters out of the deal, right?”

The man just looked at her.

“You did,” he said eventually. “Just don’t get carried away with using spells; magic used for personal gain can have bad consequences.”

“Really?” Paige asked, looking at the man in confusion. “What do you mean, bad consequences?”

“It backfires,” the man replied. “You want an example, find out what happened when Piper contracted a tropical virus from a bug bite and they tried to cure her. It wasn’t pretty; countless other people contracted the virus before they took the spell back.”

“Ouch…” Paige muttered to herself.Then she looked at the guy in confusion. “How do you know that?”

The man just shrugged. “I have contacts,” he said simply. “They know things.”

He indicated the door of the club. “Go on in; I’ll see you around.”

Then he turned around and began to walk away.

“Wait,” Paige said, reaching out and grabbing his arm. “Can you at least tell me your name?”

The man looked back at her for a moment, and then spoke.

“Angel,” he said simply.

“Angel?” Paige said, inquiringly. When the man refused to follow it up, she smiled slightly at him. “Nice name.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I’ll see you around.”

He began to walk away again, but then stopped and glanced back at her.

“Remember what I said,” he said. “Don’t use magic for personal gain.”

Then he turned around and walked back into the shadows.Paige looked after him for a few moments, uncertain what she should do. After all, she barely knew her sisters, was totally new to this magic thing, and had no real reason to go in for it if all she’d get out of it was destroying a mass of demons without being able to use even the _slightest_ spell to help her in her day-to-day affairs…

But she’d have sisters.

She’d have an actual _family_ …

How could she turn away from that?

She reached out, opened the door of the club, and stepped inside, her eyes already scanning the club for Piper and Phoebe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to let you know, I’m not going to bother rewriting EVERY episode of ‘Charmed’; just some of the major ones. Which ones I'll rewrite...
> 
> Well, you’ll have to wait and see.


	4. Hell Hath No Fury

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is set around ‘Hell Hath No Fury’, but assume that anything you don’t see happened pretty much as it did in the show; any major differences will be easy enough to work out. I apologise, but I’m not up to rewriting the entire episode

Staring up at the roof of her flat, Paige smiled to herself as she thought about recent events in her life. True, it would take some time for her to properly get used to the idea of having _sisters_ , but they seemed like pleasant people; just give her a bit of time to get used to the situation, and she was sure the three of them would be great friends…

If only her recent reading material didn’t keep on consuming her thoughts.Staring over at the book by her bed, she sighed, picked it up, and stared sadly at the sentence that had consumed her attention since she’d first read this novel.

 _Throughout history, witches have been misunderstood, persecuted and destroyed. The public hanging, drowning, and burning of women suspected of witchcraft is a far more recent chapter of our history then most people realise_ …

She _knew_ that her sisters weren’t evil, of course- the only ‘evil’ thing she’d encountered so far was that… Source that had possessed Shane- but still… knowing the prejudices against witchcraft…

Sighing, she tossed the book away and onto a nearby couch as she stared up at the ceiling. Maybe she should try and prove to herself that the spells were good by casting a few herself; nothing major, just a few little details to deal with a few work-related problems…

There was a knock at the door.“Who is that?” Paige asked, sitting up on her bed and looking curiously in the direction of the apartment’s entrance.

“Angel,” a voice replied; Paige instantly recognised it as being the voice of the man who’d given her advice twice already, and possibly prevented her from making a _big_ mistake by talking to Shane after her powers activated.

“Angel?” she said, getting up curiously and walking over to the door of her apartment. Opening it, she found herself staring at the man in question, dressed, like the last two times she’d seen him, in a long black leather coat duster and dark trousers. She was, however, relieved to note that he was now wearing a dark green jumper as opposed to the almost blood-red shirt he’d been wearing the last few times they’d met; at least she knew he varied his wardrobe _slightly_.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, staring at him in confusion.

“Thought I’d see how you were,” he said, shrugging dismissively, as though it was perfectly normal for someone you’d only met twice to pay a visit on you in your apartment at eight in the evening. “Can I come in?”

“Uh… sure,” Paige said, stepping aside to allow him access. A part of her was berating herself for letting a man she knew practically nothing about into her apartment, but the rest of her was actually rather relaxed about it.

Besides, if Angel had ever wanted to… try anything, the alley where they’d first met would be a far better location to attack her than in her apartment building; at least in the alley there was less chance of someone finding them.

“Nice place,” Angel commented as he stepped inside the apartment.

“Well, I try,” Paige said, shrugging dismissively as Angel’s eyes fell on the book that she’d tossed aside earlier. Before she could stop him, he’d picked it up, opened it at the page she’d been looking at earlier, and then glanced up at Paige briefly.

“Nervous, huh?” he asked her, as he put the book back down and looked over at Paige. Paige, unsure what to say to that, just shrugged slightly.

“You have every right to be nervous,” he said, as he walked over to stand behind the sofa, leaning on it with one hand as he looked at her critically, somehow managing to make himself an imposing presence in the room without actually being intimidating. “You’re entering into a world you knew nothing about mere days ago, and your powers are still erratic; you need to focus more on your objective than you do at the moment.”

“Focus more?” Paige asked, looking at him in confusion. “Is that _all_ you’ve got to say to me? Couldn’t you be just a _bit_ more helpful?”

Angel shrugged. “Magic isn’t really my field; I can’t give you anything from experience,” he said apologetically. “Just remember; keep your use of it secret from anyone else, and avoid anything for personal gain, and you’ll be fine.”

“ _Again_ with the personal gain?” Paige asked, looking at him curiously. “What’s wrong with that?”

“It rebounds,” Angel replied simply. “Trust me; it’s not worth it. There are always some problems that can’t be solved with magic; it doesn’t do you any good to start relying on it just because it’s easier.”

He turned around to leave the apartment, but then glanced back at her briefly. “And on that topic, if you get the chance to look at the Book of Shadows, just leave it where it is; it’s not worth the risk to take it outside. Putting aside the protection charms that are on it, too many people would kill to get access to that thing; you’d be leaving yourself wide open to a potential attack.”

Paige was about to say something to that, but, before she could, Angel stepped out the door and had already vanished by the time she got to the corridor herself.

Still… as she turned back to her apartment, she couldn’t deny that he had a point.

Maybe she _should_ try and find out a bit more about the magic side of things before she made any judgement calls…

* * *

  
A few hours later, Paige was beginning to wish that she’d never bothered to get out of bed this morning.

 _Why is it_ , she asked herself, _that on the_ first _day I drop in to learn about magic, my sister mutates into a fury, goes off on a rampage, and we don’t have_ any _idea how to save her?_

Glancing over at Leo, Cole and Phoebe, rapidly pouring over the Book of Shadows in a desperate attempt to find a solution, Paige was already beginning to wonder if this whole ‘helping-to-save-the-world’ thing was something that it was a good idea for her to do.

After all, what, exactly, had she achieved so far? A bit of extra wallop, true, but it hadn’t been enough to stop Piper getting contaminated by the furies, had it?

“Any luck?” she asked, glancing over at Phoebe. “You know, in the sense of… _un_ -demoning Piper when she gets here?”

Phoebe sighed, shook her head, and slammed the Book shut. “Nothing,” she said, sighing and slamming her hand against the wall in frustration. “All I’ve found that even _might_ be helpful is that we have to ‘close the portal of unexpressed fury’, and how are we meant to do _that_?”

“Unexpressed?” Leo said, looking over at Phoebe in confusion. “Trust me; Piper’s being very… _vocal_ about her annoyance these days.”

“Yes, but _why_ is the mystery!” Phoebe said, spinning around to yell at Leo. “How can I get Piper to calm down when I’m not even sure what she’s angry about?”

“Well… maybe we should think about stuff that happened _recently_?” Paige asked, looking at Phoebe inquiringly. “I mean, well, maybe she’s mad at… I dunno… herself? For failing to save Prue?”

“No, self-loathing wouldn’t work for the furies,” Leo put in as he looked over at Paige. “It has to be someone _else_ that she hates, not just _her_ self.”

Phoebe looked over at Leo curiously at that, as though a plan was forming in her mind.“Well… that seems easy enough, doesn’t it?” she said, nodding slightly in a thoughtful manner as she looked around at the other three people in the room. “After all, she’s already gotten over her anger at _Leo_ for being unable to heal Prue, Cole hasn’t done anything to her recently, and she doesn’t even know Paige well enough to be angry at her for anything, so it’s got to be _me_ she’s concealing something about.”

Paige frowned at Phoebe inquiringly. She followed her sister’s reasoning about why it couldn’t be anyone _else_ that Piper was angry at, but why would she be angry at Phoebe?

“The reason she’s hacked off at you being…?” she asked, looking at Phoebe inquiringly.

“I wasn’t there to help her and Prue vanquish Shax,” Phoebe explained, as she turned back to look over the book. “I may have had a reason for not being around- I was trying to negotiate for a means of keeping our secret safe after we accidentally vanquished a demon on live TV- but maybe she feels that I should have been there to help out, and, since I _wasn’t_ … well, it led to Prue dying.”

“Could work…” Cole said, nodding thoughtfully as he looked at his lover. Paige, however, wasn’t convinced. True, Phoebe’s _reasoning_ added up, but her time in social work had given her practice with working out how people were feeling, and Piper didn’t act around like Phoebe like she was blaming her for something…

Then Cole suddenly yelled in pain and dropped to the ground, clutching his ears as though trying to block out a loud noise. Startled, Paige suddenly found herself standing on the further side of the attic near the door, Phoebe standing beside Cole saying something about someone being close…

And then a fury barged in through the window.

Phoebe didn’t even seem to think; she leapt into the air and lashed out with a powerful kick that sent the demonic woman flying, just as two more furies (One of them Piper, Paige noted in horror) appeared beside Cole.

“NO!” Leo yelled, diving forward and tackling Piper to the ground even as she began to raise her hands as though to blow Cole up.

“ _Phoebe_!” Paige called over to her sister. Leaving the current fury, Phoebe, still in the air, turned around to look back at the others before diving forward and tackling Piper’s companion to the ground, landing right where the other fury had been. At the same time, Piper threw Leo off to one side and got back onto her feet, locking eyes with her sister.

“Cole is _not_ your problem, Piper,” Phoebe said, indicating her still-dazed half-demon boyfriend. “You know it, don’t you? You think I abandoned you. You think it's my fault that Prue died. You blame me. You should just admit it!”

Piper didn’t even seem to be paying attention; she just tossed Phoebe aside and into the nearby wall with an unpleasant _crack_! To Paige’s relief, it seemed as though Phoebe had only damaged an arm rather than a neck, but that still left her at least partially out of the fight, and Piper didn’t seem to be showing any sign of wanting to stop…

And that’s when it hit Paige.

There _was_ someone else that Piper could be angry at…

Paige didn’t even stop to think; remembering Angel’s earlier words, she ran forward, grabbed Piper’s arm, focused her mind like a laser beam on her intended objective, and orbed them both…

* * *

  
To a memorial wall in a monastery, right in front of a very particular plaque.

_PRUDENCE HALLIWELL  
1970-2001  
_“ _Forever in our Hearts.”_

Releasing her grip on her sister, Paige watched as Piper stared at the plaque in front of her, her eyes wide in shock. The older witch nearly began to turn for the door and run away, but stopped when she saw that the doors were locked.

“It’s not Phoebe who abandoned you, is it, Piper?” Paige said, as her demonised sister turned to stare at Paige, still standing beside the plaque on the wall with Prue’s name on it. “It was Prue.”

Piper seemed almost ready to try some other means of escape, but Paige walked over, took her arm, and led her back to the plaque like a child wanting to show something to an uncertain adult.

Stopping in front of the plaque, Paige turned to look at Piper.

“Tell her, Piper,” she said to the witch. “It's alright to hate her. You _should_ hate her. When my parents died, I hated them for it. I was alone, and I hated them. It’s OK to hate Prue.”

Piper looked at Paige for a moment, and, inwardly, Paige was already trying to figure out a way to defend herself if Piper attacked…

Then, to her relief, Piper turned to the plaque and rammed her hand against the wall.

“How dare you!” she yelled at the plaque, rage and anger evident in her voice. “How dare you leave me! How could you go and die and leave me here all alone! Please… come back! I need you!”

As Paige watched her, Piper slumped to the ground, her hand still on the plaque, and she started to cry. “Please come back…. Please…”

And, as Piper turned back to normal, collapsed on the ground, sobbing like a drain, Paige did the only thing she could; she knelt down beside her newfound sister, took her in her arms, and hugged her as she cried for the elder sister that Paige had never known.

* * *

  
The next afternoon, shortly after Paige had returned to her apartment after another long day at work, she was roused from her lethargic state by a loud knock on the door.“What the…” she said, getting up and walking over to the door…

Only to break into a smile when saw who was standing on the other side.

“Angel!” she said, grinning at her strange new… friend, for lack of a more apt term; he was certainly more than an acquaintance… as he stood outside her door. “What are you doing here?”

“I heard about the Fury thing,” Angel explained as he entered the apartment and turned to look at Paige. “I just wanted to see how you were.”

Paige shrugged dismissively. “Oh, y’know, I’m good,” she said, in an off-hand manner. “Piper’s recovering nicely from the whole experience, everyone’s forgiven her for the whole ‘trying-to-kill-us’ thing, and she even brought me some muffins.”She sighed as she leaned back against the wall. “Overall? Profitable time all round.”

She looked over at Angel sharply, as a thought suddenly occurred to her. “By the way, thanks for the tip about focus last time; it _really_ paid off when things looked like getting ugly back there.”

“Thanks,” Angel said dismissively. “I’m glad it paid off; as I said, magic isn’t my field of expertise.”

“Yeah, y’know, I meant to ask you about that; how do you know so much about this stuff?” Paige asked, staring at Angel inquiringly.

Angel shrugged. “I know a lot about the supernatural side of the world,” he said, by way of explanation. “My parents were killed by… well, demons- I generally didn’t bother too much about the specifics of _what_ they were at the time- when I was younger, and I’ve been learning about them and their kind ever since. I can’t do spells to save my life, but I’m pretty good at defending myself in a fight, so, given their general disdain for hand-to-hand combat and their commonly human-level strength, it pretty much balances out.”

Paige looked at him curiously.

“You learned how to fight?” she asked him, a curious expression on her face. “Uh… any chance you could give me a few lessons?”

Angel looked at Paige in surprise, and she chuckled slightly. “Yeah, I know my powers can be pretty useful in a combat situation, but I’d still prefer to have something else to use other than orbing the guy’s weapons out of his hands and into mine. I would have asked Phoebe, but I’d like to have something to surprise them with…”

She looked Angel in the eyes again, and raised an eyebrow slightly. “So, care to give me a few pointers?”

Angel looked back at her for a few moments, and then nodded.

“All right,” he said, as he studied the floor space of the apartment before looking back at Paige. “We’ve got the space to have a fairly decent lesson here; I’m ready to begin when you are.”

Paige smiled at him. Somehow, even though she still didn’t know much about this man, she was already beginning to feel comfortable around him, and the prospect of having to be close to him seemed somehow…

Pleasant, she guessed was the best term.

Then, as Angel took up a combat stance and told Paige to copy him, she shook her head slightly and got back to the matter at hand.

The first lesson was about to begin.


	5. Moving In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve jumped a bit here; right now, we’re around the beginning of ‘A Knight to Remember’. For the moment, just assume that everything in ‘Enter the Demon’ and ‘Size Matters’ took place as it did in the show; Paige was maybe a _bit_ more competent with potion-brewing the first time round, and she got out of the clay faster than in the show, but other than that, everything’s the same

Looking out of her apartment window at the city spread out before her, Paige couldn’t help but sigh slightly.

 _Alone again…_ she mused to herself, looking around her bedroom. _And for once, it’s because I wanted to be_.

For the first time since Glen had started to come back on visits to San Francisco, she had declined to meet him for their usual ‘friends-with-benefits’ reunions. True, the two of them had been cooling off towards each other in recent times, what with their changes in lifestyle and all that, but still…

She sighed as she collapsed onto her bed, exchanging the view of the city for the less attractive view of her apartment ceiling.

She couldn’t even explain _why_ she’d turned Glen down. He was still attractive, both physically and personally, he was still good company, he knew her almost as well as she did (Not counting her recent bouts of magic, of course), and…

Paige groaned, as her mind hit the stumbling block that had kept Glen at arm’s length.

He wasn’t Angel.

Paige wasn’t sure when it had happened, but, over the last few weeks, she’d… well, at the very least, she’d developed a crush on her secretive, stealthy and more-often-than-not brooding trainer and advisor. The ‘why’ of it wasn’t hard to figure out, of course- after all, he looked great in black (Although since she’d only even _seen_ him in black, that wasn’t saying much), had the ability to make you feel as though you were the centre of his whole universe when he looked at you, and his eyes…

They just seemed so _old_ , as though he’d seen something that had given him so much good, and yet so much terror at the same time, that he wasn’t sure how to feel about it…

“Oh my God…” Paige groaned, as she stared up at the ceiling, her head clasped in her hands. “I am _seriously_ falling for this guy…”

 _Still_ , she thought to herself, _it could be worse; at least he’s not a demon trying to win my trust to take us out._

True, she didn’t have much to base that bit of information on at the moment, but it seemed accurate. After all, why would a _demon_ give her advice that led to her becoming a Charmed One and defying the Source’s best efforts to tempt her over to evil? It _had_ to be easier to just kill her while she was weak and then eliminate Piper and Phoebe when they were pretty much rendered useless as the ‘Power of Two’.

She just wished that Angel showed a bit of a more… pro-active interest in her, she guessed. After all, his occasional advice was pretty good, but, ever since she was young, she’d fantasized slightly about meeting a guy who’d be prepared to risk life and limb to protect her from some kind of danger (Not that she was helpless or anything; she mainly wanted the guy to be prepared to fight so that she know that he cared).

Generally, Paige blamed that aspect of her personality on her fondness for fairy tales when she was younger; that whole thing she’d made up with the Evil Enchanteress had always been a favourite of hers…

* * *

  
The next day, the sun high in the sky, Paige slowly blinked her eyes open as she stared out of her window, a part of her mind registering that she was still fully dressed; she must have fallen asleep in the middle of her musings last night.

Still, it wasn’t like it was a big deal; it was still only around eight-thirty and work didn’t start until about ten these days, so at least she wouldn’t have to worry about being late for work or anything like that.

At least, work of the non-magic variety…

As son as that thought had crossed her mind, there was a sudden knock at the door.“Ugh…” she groaned, as she staggered to her feet and walked over to the door, grateful that she wasn’t a very active sleeper; she’d hate to greet whoever was at the door _looking_ like she’d just woken up as well as _feeling_ that way as well…

( _Especially if it’s_ Angel _…_ a part of her brain said, but Paige shook it off; this wasn’t the time for that)

Opening the door, she was relieved to just see Piper, Phoebe and Leo standing there; at least she wouldn’t have to make conversation with Angel when her brain was still primarily operating on back-up…

“Uh… hi?” she said, sheepishly waving at them. “So… what’s up?”

“Demon, unfortunately,” Piper replied. “It’s been in the Manor’s electric supply for the last couple of days; we haven’t been able to call you before now-”

“And, lemme guess, you need me to vanquish the thing?” Paige asked, looking at her sisters critically for a moment, before she sighed and rubbed one of her eyes. “You know, you’re just lucky I didn’t bring Glen over last night, or I’d be _really_ annoyed at you right now…”

“Glen?” Phoebe asked, as Paige began to pull her boots on.“Old friend; long story, going nowhere,” Paige said, glaring up at Phoebe as she did up the zips on the boots and stood up to look at the Halliwells. “So, can we get on with this?”

* * *

  
“Right…” Paige said, as she stepped into the manor and glanced over at Piper and Phoebe; Leo had gone off to let her boss know that she might be a few minutes late. “So, what now?”

“Just turn on something electrical and we’ll handle it from there,” Piper said, indicating the light. “That should do it.”

“Right then,” Paige said, as she flicked the switch and then stepped back. Instantly, something leapt out of the light that looked like a man made of blue lightning, spinning around to stare at them even as Phoebe held up a notebook with a spell written on it, which the three sisters quickly recited.

“Vanquish we three witches cry, one final shock and then you die!” they cried. Instantly the Shocker demon stumbled back, yelled once in pain, and then vanished in a bright spark of light.

“Oh,” Paige said, blinking in surprise as the demon collapsed before her. “Well… that was quick.”

“Yeah, it mostly is when you get down to it,” Piper said, shrugging as she glanced over at Paige. “Y’know, if you were available a bit sooner, we could probably sort everything out like that; quick spell before work, and we wouldn’t even have to bother each other for the rest of the day.”

“Ma- what?” Paige asked, looking over at Piper in confusion. “Sorry, did you just suggest that I move in?”

“Uh… yeah, we did,” Phoebe said, looking at her inquiringly. “I mean, well, we should probably be doing it sooner or later- at least you wouldn’t have to explain the damage done to your apartment by demon attacks to your landlord, and-”

Paige held up her hand and glared at Phoebe.

“Just… hold it there, willya?” she said, looking critically at Paige. “As much as I like you guys, I don’t think we’re quite there yet sister-wise, and I am _not_ moving in here for the demon-busting advantage alone, OK?”

She sighed and headed for the door. “I’m going to work; we’ll talk more when I get back.”

* * *

  
_Great_ , Paige thought to herself as she sat at her desk, trying to focus on her work while also reflecting on her recent confrontation with Piper and Phoebe. _Barely known them for a month, and I’m_ already _arguing with them about living conditions_.

It wasn’t that she didn’t see their points, of course; it was just that…

Well, she felt like they were just trying to fit her into the hole in their lives that Prue had left when she died, rather than letting her make her own place in their lives. She knew that they weren’t doing it _deliberately_ \- who wouldn’t want to find some way to get rid of their grief after something like this, after all?- but still…

Groaning, Paige got up and headed for the cafeteria to get herself something to drink. However, just as she stepped out of the main office into the corridor, she found herself facing…

“Angel?” she asked, blinking at him in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

Angel just shrugged casually, his hands in the pocket of his long leather coat, today’s shirt being a dark blue in colour.

“Heard about the Shocker demon and thought I should check up on you,” he said casually.

“Really?” Paige asked, looking at him curiously. “Y’know, just out of curiosity, how’d you _know_ all this stuff anyway? Do you just watch us to keep up-to-date?”

Her face paled slightly at the implications there- was Angel just some creepy stalker?- but he chuckled slightly and shook his head.

“No, I just have contacts in low places,” he said, smiling slightly at her in a reassuring manner. “You think Cole’s the only good demon out there?”

“What… you know a bunch of them?” Paige said, staring at Angel in growing confusion.

Angel shrugged. “I knew where some of the less violent bunch go when they want to relax; you pick up a lot of things if you’re prepared to wait,” he said nonchalantly. “Things go well?”

Paige shrugged. “Oh, you know the drill; get in, vanquish the bad guy, get offers to move in with them to replace their lost sister…”

“What?” Angel said, looking at Paige in surprise. “They asked you to move in?”

“Yeah, I know; shocking, isn’t it?” Paige said, as she glanced along the corridor, grateful that lunch break wasn’t officially for another half-hour; she’d hate to have to explain Angel’s presence to her colleagues. “I mean, we get along and all, but I just don’t think we’re… y’know, really _ready_ for it as sisters, if you get my drift. I mean, Prue’s room still the _exact_ way it was when she died; it’s practically a shrine! They’re just not _ready_ for me to move in; they’re not even ready to get over her death yet!”

Angel just looked at her briefly, and then raised an eyebrow.

“And it never occurred to you that your presence could be what they need?” he asked.

“Uh… what?” Paige said, staring at him in confusion.

“Paige,” Angel said, looking at her critically, “I went through a lot of grief after I learned that my parents and sister were dead, but, even though I eventually got over it on my own, I still feel as though having someone else there to help me would have helped. If nothing else, I might have dealt with it better if I felt as though there was someone else there for me who wasn’t dealing with the same problem, but at the same time cared enough to be there when I needed it.”

He titled his head slightly to one side and looked at her enquiringly. “Which works better? Letting them cope on their own and _never_ being quite ready to let you in, or going in yourself and helping to realise the necessity of moving on?”

Paige was about to reply that she just wasn’t _ready_ for this, but stopped herself as she reflected on Angel’s comment.

He _did_ have a point, she had to admit; it _would_ be a great help for Piper and Phoebe if they had someone to talk to who could relate to them on a _personal_ level, while at the same time being detached enough to look at their current situation objectively. After all, as close as Paige felt to Prue now- being half-sisters who’d shared the same power _did_ help her identify with the lost eldest sister- but she still didn’t _know_ Prue…

She looked back at Angel, who was looking at her with a slightly enquiring expression on his face.

“Good point there, Angel…” she said, nodding reflectively as she mulled over his suggestion in her head. “I’ll… well, I’ll think about it, at least…”

“Good,” Angel said, nodding at her in approval. “The sooner the better. You three need to learn to stand together, or everything falls apart.”

“Yeah…” Paige said, nodding thoughtfully. Then she shook her head, glanced at her watch and sighed.

“No time to grab a drink now; I’ll just have to wait ‘till lunch,” she groaned, before glancing up at Angel. “Care to… stick around for a snack?” she asked him, slightly uncertain whether she should do this; after all, was her work cafeteria _really_ the best place for a first date?

She was almost relieved when Angel shook his head.

“I can’t; I’ve got something I need to check up on,” he said, indicating the door to the main office. “You’d better get back to work; I’ll see you around.”

* * *

  
Even as Paige returned to her office, and Angel departed back to the sewers, neither of them could have known that, far below them, the Source was facing a blond-haired female vampire dressed as a Catholic schoolgirl, looking at the powerful demon with an enquiring stare.

“You are sure about this?” she asked the Source, apparently either ignorant or unconcerned about the sheer power of the demon before her. “I know Angelus better than anyone-”

“But he will not be expecting the Three,” the Source replied, staring at her critically. “You, on the other hand, he has been avoiding for nearly a hundred years; he would almost be disappointed if you _failed_ to find him sooner or later. This way, at least, I can keep him off guard, as well as eliminate the young Charmed One.”

The vampire sighed in a slightly petulant manner, but then looked up at the Source with a resigned expression.

“All right…” she said, pouting slightly. “Just promise me I’ll get a shot at him when they fail.”

“The Three fail in a task, Darla?” the Source asked, smiling at her. “Your lack of experience with them has led you to underestimate them.”“I don’t need any experience with them,” Darla replied, smiling back at him. “I know Angelus. Trust me; no vampire you could send after him would be sufficient.”

Her grin widened as she looked at him. “Only his sire could manage.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The rest of ‘Knight to Remember’ never actually happens here, I should mention. The way I see it, Paige only cast the spell because she was feeling frustrated and angry at Piper and Phoebe’s attempts to make her into a new Prue and wanted to try something she did herself, but since here she never became that angry, that problem was irrelevant. Sorry to disappoint, but I just couldn’t manage to rewrite the whole episode. Next chapter comes the moment you’ve been waiting for; Darla versus the Charmed Ones, and Angel’s exposure as a vampire!


	6. The Face of Angel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are; the moment of truth. The upcoming events are based primarily on the events of ‘Angel’ in Season One of _Buffy_ ; hope you enjoy

Sipping her drink as she stared around the dance floor of P3, Paige sighed in frustration as she shoved her glass away from her and slumped back into her chair.

What was _wrong_ with her? She’d barely even _touched_ the guy, if you didn’t count their unarmed combat training, and Angel was still taking up her thoughts to a degree that most guys did only _after_ she’d learned how good they were at the kissing/sex/either thing first-hand. Call her shallow, but she really wasn’t sure it was healthy for a guy to occupy her thoughts that much when she hadn’t even kissed him yet…

“Anything up?”

Glancing in the direction of the voice, Paige smiled slightly as Piper sat down beside her sister. Paige just shrugged dismissively.

“Eh, y’know… just stuff,” she said dismissively, as she sipped on her drink and glanced around the club.

“Care to elaborate?” Piper asked, raising an enquiring eyebrow as she tilted her head to one side. “I mean, new sister or not, you’re still my sister; what one of us has to deal with, we all have to help with, whether it’s magical or not.”

Paige just shrugged dismissively. “It’s nothing.”

“Ah,” Piper said, nodding in understanding. “Guy trouble?”

“NO!” Paige said, louder than she’d intended as she slammed her drink down on the table and turned to look at Piper. Stopping herself before anything more could be said, she took a brief breath to calm herself, and then looked back at her sister. “I mean, _no_ , it’s not guy trouble. There’d need to be a _guy_ for it to be guy trouble, and there’s not; I haven’t seen anyone since Shane.”

“But…?” Piper asked, waving a hand in a prompting manner.

Paige sighed as she glanced over at her sister. “Well… there is this one guy,” she said, as she sat back in her chair to look at her sister more comfortably. “I actually met him around the same time my powers were activated; he gave me some advice when I needed it, and, well, he’s been showing up now and again ever since.”

“Really?” Piper said, looking at Paige in interest. “Does he… y’know… know about…?”

“The Power of Three thing?” Paige inquired, glancing over at her sister. “Well, I never told him, but he seemed to know it even before _I_ understood the full implications of my powers.” Noting Pier’s suddenly concerned expression, she smiled reassuringly at her sister. “Relax; no offence, but if he wanted to take us out, it would have been easier to just kill me then and then take you guys out later, right?”

Piper was about to reply, but stopped herself.

She had to admit, it _would_ have been easier for this guy to just kill Paige before she really knew about her powers. The fact that she was still here _did_ say something about the guy…

But, then again, Cole had originally been intending to kill them, and he’d seemed perfectly amiable at first.

“You’re sure he’s OK?” she asked Paige, looking at her curiously. “I mean, we all thought that about Cole at first, and look what he turned out to be.”

“I know that, but I can just _tell_ this guy’s on our side,” Paige explained, as she turned to face Piper. “If nothing else, the advice he’s given me _has_ helped me make decisions that might have resulted in me going evil rather than sticking with you guys if he hadn’t said anything. I mean, it was because of him that I went to the church where you guys tracked me down rather than just go straight to Shane, and we all know what had happened to _him_ , right?”

Piper nodded in agreement. She could definitely see Paige’s point; if this guy, whoever he was, had wanted Paige to go over to the dark side, sending her to the Source would have practically _guaranteed_ her turning. She would never stop being grateful that they’d managed to find Paige before the Source could, or that she’d been so willing to listen to them about their background…

The two women sat in reflection for a moment, but then Paige sighed and stood up. “I’d better get going; too much stuff on at work at the moment for me to stay up too late.”

“Fair enough,” Piper said, nodding in understanding at her sister. “You go on ahead; Phoebe and I’ll see you when we get back.”

“Right,” Paige said, as she stood up and headed for the door, grabbing her coat from the hook where she’d left it on her arrival. If nothing else, maybe the drive home would give her a chance to think…

A long shot that she’d think of anything helpful, of course- she’d been musing over this for ages and had yet to come to a decent conclusion- but maybe she’d get lucky…

She stopped.

There was something out there.

What it was she wasn’t entirely sure, but she could sense enough- whether from her witch side or her Whitelighter side- to know that it couldn’t be good.

Sighing, Paige turned to look down the nearest alley, crossing her arms as she stared into the shadows in annoyance.

“Look,” she said, trying to sound casual in case she’d just made a mistake. “It’s late, I’m tired, and I’m not in the mood. Just show yourself.”

Just then, something leapt down beside her and roared in her face. Spinning around to look in the direction of the impact, Paige only just had time to register that her new foe had a protruding forehead, sharp teeth, and gleaming gold eyes, before all of Angel’s training over the last few weeks kicked in and she lashed out with a powerful punch at her foe…

Only to have her arm grabbed by another of these things and hauled away from her with a force that shouldn’t be possible. _Great_ , Paige mused to herself. _Superhuman strength. And I though demons who could just use_ magic _were bad enough…_

On the other hand, two wasn’t as bad as it could be; she still had a chance of getting out, if she could just remember her lessons. If Angle had taught her anything, it was that strength alone wasn’t the deciding factor in a fight; his lessons in aikido had taught her that much, at least, even if she’d yet to progress much further than the theory of the combat…

Then a third figure grabbed her arm and, aided by the other arm-holding individual, rammed her against the wall of the alley, the first one advancing on her as he licked his lips.

“OK,” Paige said, trying to stay calm and seem in control of the situation; right now, unless Phoebe and Piper came out at the moment, she should assume that she was on her own. “Look, I don’t _want_ to have to fight you all… unless… unless I have to… ah, screw it,” she decided, orbing out of the grasp of the things that were holding her and reappearing behind the first one.

Paige grinned in relief; a part of her had been worried that the demons might have some means of negating her orbing abilities. Before her foe could turn around, Paige had struck him in the back of the head with a spinning kick- she had never been more grateful for not wearing heels while going out- and, while he was staggering, she quickly glanced around for something she could use as a weapon to even the odds; training or not, three to one didn’t seem good to her.

However, just as the other two figures were advancing on her, their comrade still down for the count, the odds suddenly changed as someone grabbed one of the creatures by the shoulder and spun him around to face his new foe.“Good dogs don’t _bite_!” the new arrival yelled, as he punched the thing in the face, sending it staggering back as Paige lashed out with a karate-chop at the neck of the other one.

“Angel!” Paige yelled, smiling in relief at her teacher, before her face fell. “Look out!” she yelled, as she saw the thing she’d attacked originally turn around to lunge at Angel; to his credit, her mysterious champion not only managed to avoid the blow, he was then able to tear an iron bar off a nearby window (Fortunately not from P3, a part of Paige’s mind noted) and lash out at the thing with a swipe that almost made it appear as though he was holding a dagger rather than a random bar.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Paige rammed her palm into the chin of a creature that seemed to be roaring at her in rage, and winced as blood splattered across her face; it looked as though she’d made the creature bite its own tongue in half. Trying not to think about it, she spun around and slammed her palms over the ears of another adversary, resisting the temptation to sigh in relief as he reeled back; she hadn’t been sure if these guys would have eardrums like humans did.

Despite their current progress, as Paige glanced over at Angel, who was currently fending off two of these things simultaneously, she had to admit the facts.

They weren’t going to make it.Not unless she tried something herself.

“We have to go!” she yelled over at Angel, as she grabbed his hand, focused…

* * *

  
And, to her relief, they both reappeared outside Halliwell Manor.

“Get inside!” Paige yelled, indicating the house. “Even if they follow us, I might be able to get a shield up around this place to keep them out!”

As the two of them ran into the house, Paige locking the door behind them, Angel smiled slightly as the door finally closed behind them.

“No need to worry about anything else,” he assured her, as she glanced around to look at him inquiringly. “Those were vampires; they can’t get into a house unless you invite them in.”

“Oh, they’re vampires,” Paige said, only half paying attention to her… friend’s words, before her brain fully processed what he’s said and she spun around to stare at Angel.

“Wait a minute; _vampires_!” she said, staring at Angel in horror. A part of her recalled Angel once mentioning that his family had been killed by vampires, but the rest of her was focusing on the immediate issue of them having just tried to kill her when she thought they didn’t exist. “As in bats, flying, reanimated corpse, turning into mist, ‘I vant to suck your blood’ _vampires_!”

“Just the blood and the corpse thing are actually accurate,” Angel said, looking critically at Paige. “Everything else you know about vampires is based on inaccurate information; they’re essentially enhanced humans with a weakness to sunlight and holy artefacts and a dependence on blood.”

“Oh,” Paige said, looking at Angel in surprise. “Well… that’s good to know. So, vampires _aren’t_ as deadly as ‘Dracula’ makes out?”

Angel shrugged. “Generally, that’s true. There’s a few exceptions, but normally the vampires you’ll encounter are just what attacked you tonight.”

“And on that topic, what were you doing there anyway?” Paige said, drawing the conversation away from the matter of vampires and on to more personal matters. “I mean, are you following me or something?”

“Why would I do that?” Angel asked casually.

Paige tried to glare at him slightly, but she’d never been very good at that kind of thing.

“You tell me,” she said eventually. “After all, _you're_ the Mystery Guy that appears out of nowhere. I'm not saying I'm not happy about it tonight, but... if you are hanging around I'd like to know why.”

Angel shrugged. “Maybe I like you,” he said simply.

“Maybe…” Paige said, nodding thoughtfully for a moment, before she sighed and glanced outside. “Look, it’s getting late, and I’m really not comfortable with you walking around with those three running about; maybe I could… orb you home or something?”

Angel shook his head. “Wouldn’t work; I don’t really have a home,” he said simply. “Ever since my family died, I’ve lived wherever the fancy takes me; I don’t have an actual address at the moment.”“Ah,” Paige said, trying to sound nonchalant about that comment while simultaneously being more than slightly annoyed that Angel didn’t have anywhere safe to go at a time like this…

“Well, look, since you don’t have anywhere _else_ to go, you’ll just have to stay here,” she said, as she jerked her thumb up the stairs. “You can take my room tonight, and I’ll sleep on-”

Angel shook his head.

“No, you have the bed; I’ll just take the floor,” he said casually. Paige opened her mouth to protest, but he smiled at her reassuringly. “Trust me; I’ve had worse.”

“Uh… right,” Paige said, as she began to walk up the stairs towards her room, only realising when she was halfway up the stairs that Angel hadn’t moved from his original position midway between the door and the stairs.

“Something wrong?” she asked, glancing back at him in concern.

* * *

  
_What the hell was I_ thinking Angel asked himself, as he stared up at the ceiling in annoyance at himself. Spending the night in the manor of the _Charmed Ones_? Even if the Three _were_ active, there was no _way_ he’d be any safer here; Belthazor would almost _certainly_ recognise him by reputation alone!Besides, after their dismal failing this time round, he wouldn’t be surprised if the Three didn’t last the day when the Source learned of their failure; he’d probably be safe enough outside.

“I… I’m sorry; I can’t stay,” he said, as he indicated the door. “I… I really can’t be around you any more.”

“Oh,” Paige said simply, as she turned around and walked down to join him at the landing. Angel just wished she’d chosen to wear something _other_ than that short blue top when going out tonight; with all the flesh that thing displayed, he was amazed he hadn’t lost control already. “Well, I get it. After all, I can always get another fight instructor…”

“When I am,” Angel said, already wishing he could stop himself but knowing he had to say this, “all I can ever think about is how badly I want to kiss you.”

“… And as you said-” Paige said, apparently not having heard Angel’s comment, before stopping and looking at Angel in surprise. “Kiss me?”Angel groaned as he tried to think of some way out of this that _didn’t_ involve him revealing the fact that he was technically dead.

“I’m… older than you,” he said eventually, hoping that would be enough for her, “and this can't ever...”

He broke off as Paige moved closer to him, looking up at his face enquiringly. Lips slightly parted, looking at him with a caring expression like he hadn’t seen directed at him since his sister died…

“I’d better go,” he said weakly, starting to turn to face the door, but being stopped by Paige grabbing his shoulder and turning him back to look at her again.

“How much older?” she asked, raising an eyebrow as she stared at him. “‘Cause, no offence on Piper and Phoebe, but look at them; they’re seeing older guys. Why shouldn’t I?”

Swallowing nervously, Angel glanced over his shoulder at the door before looking back at Paige. “I should...”

But whatever he had been about to say was interrupted when Paige leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. Angel knew he shouldn’t be doing this, knew it was violating every rule he’d set himself when he’d first seen her, knew that somebody was going to create a _serious_ problem about a Charmed One kissing the Scourge of Europe…

But, all of a sudden, he didn’t care.At least, not until he felt his face begin to change, the demon within him suddenly excited by the prospect of fresh blood so close to him, Paige's increased heartbeat as she kissed him only increasing his demon's strength...

Quickly, he pulled back and turned his head away from her, trying to conceal his new face even as Paige looked at him in concern.

“What?” she said, sounding slightly nervous. “What is it? What's wrong?”

Before Angle could stop her, she grabbed his shoulder, pulled him round to face her…

And her jaw dropped in horror at the sight before her.

“OH MY GOD!” she screamed, as she instinctively stepped back and began to shift into a combat stance. Angel didn’t wait around to find out what she’d try to hit him with first; he just turned around and dived out of the door, slamming it behind as he mentally berated himself.

 _Great going there, Angel_ , he thought to himself. _You’re in trouble now…_


	7. Darla

“A _vampire_?” Phoebe said, staring at Paige in horror the next morning, after the rest of the Halliwell clan had returned to the mansion. “You’re telling me that you invited a _vampire_ into our house!”

“I didn’t _know_ , OK?” Paige yelled back at her sister, already wishing she’d had the nerve to tell them earlier, instead of spending the night moping to herself until she fell asleep. “He seemed like a good guy; I mean, he pretty much _told_ me to go to the church rather than straight to Shane!”

“OK, uh, maybe we should think about this a bit more?” Piper asked, glancing around the table before looking back at Leo. “Could a vampire ever be a good guy? I mean, the type of vampire _this_ guy is; based on what he told Paige it sound like there’s several different kinds of vampires, so could _he_ be a good one, huh?”

Leo shook his head. “No, not in this case; based on Paige’s description, Angel’s class of vampire aren’t really people at all,” he explained, as he looked around the table. “The demon controlling the vampire may have the movements, the memories, even the personality of the person that it took over, but it’s still a demon at the core; there isn’t a single record of a vampire actually _being_ human in the ways that really matter.”

“But why would he _help_ Paige?” Cole put in, staring around in confusion at the others. “I mean, I may have gotten close to Phoebe when I was Belthazor, but there it was a strictly professional, normal human relationship; I wasn’t giving her anything that could have helped her fight other demons. This guy… he was actually giving Paige fighting lessons. How could that _help_ him kill you three?”

“Uh… make her predictable?” Piper suggested. “You know, Paige learns how to fight from this guy, she gets confident in her fighting style, he tells people what moves she favours, and they can get past her and take her by surprise?”

Phoebe shook her head. “Too long-term; it’d take some time for Paige to develop a fixed fighting style. She could take quite a few demons by surprise before she becomes so comfortable fighting a certain way that she won’t fight in another manner, and the Source never struck me as the kind of guy who’d waste resources for no real reason.”

“So, maybe we’re getting sidetracked by the Source issue?” Paige added, standing up and glancing over at Leo and Cole. “Maybe we should try and figure out who Angel _really_ is before we can work out what he wants. Can either of you guys think of a vampire with that name? Or at least something that could _mean_ ‘Angel’?”

Leo shook his head, but Cole began to nod thoughtfully, as though something was just coming back to him.

“You know, it _does_ ring a bell…” he said, as he looked over at Paige. “Demons don’t normally pay much attention to vampire activity, but there was this one vampire active around a century ago who had a seriously dangerous reputation in even the underworld. He was active in Ireland and Europe for over a hundred and fifty years; everyone called him ‘Angelus’, the vampire with the angelic face.”

“Got that right,” Paige said, nodding with a wistful expression on her face before she noticed the others glaring at her. “What?” she asked, shrugging helplessly. “Can’t I think a guy’s hot? The fact that he’s not exactly _human_ shouldn’t change that, right?”

“ _Anyway_ ,” Piper said, looking critically at Paige before turning back to face Cole, “so, Angel’s been around a while?”

Cole shrugged. “Not that long for a vampire; just two hundred and fifty years old or so.”

“Oh!” Paige said, raising her eyebrows in surprise. “Two hundred and fifty?”

She shrugged casually, trying to appear as though it didn’t bother her. “Well, he said he was older.”

“ _Anyway_ ,” Cole said, looking around to make sure he had the attention of the others as he spoke, “Angelus wreaked havoc in Europe for several decades, and then about  
ninety years ago, for reasons nobody’s ever been able to figure out, he came to America, shunned demons and other vampires, and lived alone. There hasn’t been a single recorded incident of him killing anyone

“So he _is_ a good vampire!” Paige put in, smiling slightly in relief. As everyone turned to look at her, she shrugged slightly. “I mean, on a scale of one to ten, ten being someone who's killing and maiming every night, and one being someone who's... not…”

She stopped talking as the other four turned to look at her as though she’d suddenly grown a second head; even to herself, she was starting to sound stupid.“I’ll… just shut up now, huh?” she said sheepishly, although she still had a slightly hopeful expression on her face as she turned to look at Cole.

Cole shook his head sceptically, an apologetic expression on his face. “The lack of information isn’t a guarantee, unfortunately. I _say_ that there's no record, but Angelus may just have changed his hunting methods to avoid attracting attention. All vampires must hunt and kill; it's what they do.”

Leo nodded. “They’re essentially parasites in human bodies; no real powers, but they’re strong and dangerous.”

Paige shook her head. “He can’t be like that; he could've fed on me several times, and he didn't.”

“Maybe not, but I’m pretty sure we decided that we can’t assume anything based on that,” Piper said, before turning back to look at Cole. “Simple question: a hundred years or so before he came over here, what was he like?”

Cole shrugged. “Like all vampires; a vicious, violent animal,” he said, looking apologetically over at Paige. “If anything, he was worse than most; I once heard a story that, on one occasion, he actually drained a little girl dry and then left her in her bed as though she was just sleeping.”

Paige’s eyes widened in horror at that.

 _No_ … she thought to herself. _Please let them be wrong… Angel_ couldn’t _have done that…_

But a part of her already knew that he had.

And an even smaller part of her was wondering how she was going to kill him…

* * *

  
As Angel slumped in the abandoned apartment that made up his accommodation for the current day- it wasn’t much, but at least the windows were boarded up, there was still enough electricity to run basics like the fridge and the light, and nothing was being planned as far as it was concerned- he was trying to figure exactly where things had gone wrong.

Why hadn’t he bothered to _tell_ Paige about his past? He _knew_ about the risks in concealing his vampire nature from her and her sisters; even if he hadn’t wanted the other Halliwells to learn about it, he still shouldn’t have kept it secret from _her_ , especially after spending all that time with her…

But at the same time, Angel knew why he hadn’t told Paige.

He’d seen the way she still treated Cole; as though he was a ticking time bomb who’d turn on the Charmed Ones any minute.

_And I didn’t want to take the chance that she’d act that way with me…_

Angel’s rather depressing train of thought may have continued, but then heheard a faint noise in one corner and groaned.

 _Another_ vampire attack? Didn’t they learn their lesson earlier? True, he may not have Paige’s help now (A part of him winced at the reminder of the beautiful half-witch, half-Whitelighter, but he quickly pushed it aside), but now that the sun was out, all that it would take was one removed board and the fight would be practically over.

Standing up in resignation, Angel turned to look in the direction of the sound.

“Who's here?” he asked, already shifting into a combat stance. If it really _was_ the Three, Angel knew he didn’t have much hope of winning against all three of them on his own, but he would at least take one of them with him before he went down.

“Oh… just an old friend,” a teasing female voice replied, and Angel groaned.

 _Why did it have to be her_? he asked himself, as the speaker stepped into the light of the single bulb that was this room’s only real source of illumination. _This is_ exactly _what I_ don’t _need, on top of everything else._

It had been over a century since they were last face-to-face, and the Catholic schoolgirl costume that she was now wearing was a drastic change from the clothes she’d been wearing in their last meeting, but Angel still recognised her easily enough.

Darla.

His sire, and, for over a century, his driving obsession. He’d committed terrible acts to please her, and, in the end, he’d even tried to defy his soul to be with her, until he realised that he couldn’t continue that way and left her.

“Hi,” the beautiful vampiress said, smiling innocently at her childe like she genuinely was the schoolgirl her costume made her appear to be. “It's been a while.”

“A lifetime,” Angel said, noncommittally; after he’d run away from her, clutching that baby he’d rescued from her thirst, he’d never thought about her unless he couldn't help it.

“Or two,” Darla said, smiling over at him as she walked towards him, with a demure attitude whose effectiveness was ruined by the seductive gleam in her eyes, “but who's counting?”

“What's with the Catholic schoolgirl look?” Angel asked, ignoring his sire’s smile as he indicated her costume. “Last time I saw you it was kimonos.”

“And last time I saw _you_ it wasn't social work assistants,” Darla retaliated, as she ‘demurely’ flared the black-and-white checked skirt she was wearing as she approached Angel, an almost inquiring expression in her eyes, as though asking if he liked the outfit. “Remember Budapest? Turn of the century? You were such a bad boy during that earthquake.”

“You did some damage yourself,” Angel retaliated; he wasn’t going to let her provoke him by reminding him of his past.

“Is there anything better than a natural disaster?” Darla said, smiling as she walked casually around the apartment. “The panic… the people lost in the streets… it's like picking fruit off the vine.”

Grinning even wider, Darla reached the bed and smiled in mock approval at it.

“Nice!” she said, nodding like she’d been shown the _Mona Lisa_ as she turned to look at Angel, her expression changing to a harsh glare. “You're living above ground, like one of them. You and your new _friend_ are attacking us and our fellows, like one of them.”

She began to walk over to the boarded-up window, her gaze fixed on Angel even as she walked. “But guess what, precious?” she said teasingly, as she placed her fingers underneath the edge of one of the boards. “You're not one of them.”

Reaching out, Darla dug her nails under one board and threw it to the side, drawing her hand back rapidly as a stream of sunlight was let into the room. Momentarily blinded, Angel stumbled backwards to get out of the light, blinking rapidly a few times to clear his vision as he raised his eyes to stare at Darla once again.

“Are you?” Darla asked, her voice once again that gentle, teasing tone that made her sound as though she thought she was talking to a child.

“No,” Angel said, shaking his head as he glared at Darla. “But I'm not exactly one of you either.”

“Is that what you tell yourself these days?” Darla asked, as she walked over to the battery-powered fridge that was one of the few objects owned by Angel these days that he didn’t actually wear. Opening the fridge, Darla picked up a bag full of cold blood- one of many- and tutted sarcastically as she looked back at Angel.

“You're not exactly living off quiche,” she casually informed him, as she tossed the blood back into the fridge and, shutting the door, stood up and began to walk towards Angel, almost catlike in her movements. “You and I both know what you hunger for. What you _need_ …”

Angel turned his head slightly, not wanting to hear any more, and Darla chuckled. “Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of. It's who we are. It's what makes eternal life worth living.”

Finally reaching Angel, she reached up with one finger and tenderly stroked his cheek, like a mother caressing the face of a confused child. “You can only suppress your real nature for so long. You can feel it brewing inside of you…”

Stepping back, she grinned pleasantly at him. “I hope I'm around when it explodes.”

“Maybe you don't want to be,” Angel growled back at his sire, and was slightly annoyed when she merely laughed.

“ _I'm_ not afraid of you,” Darla retorted calmly, as another grin flicked across her face. “I bet _she_ is, though.”

Angel didn’t have to ask who she meant.

 _Paige_.

He couldn’t say he was surprised, really; Darla had always been well informed where her current killing ground was concerned.

Darla turned around and walked towards the door, pausing as she reached the apartment’s exit to look back at her favoured childe.

“Or maybe I'm underestimating her,” she said, as though it had only just occurred to her. “Talk to her. Tell her about the curse. Maybe she'll come around. And if she still doesn't trust you…”

Darla smiled at him again. “You know where I'll be.”

Then she walked out of the apartment, leaving Angel staring after her with an expression that was simultaneously anger, lust, and confusion.

* * *

  
A few minutes later, down in the underworld, Darla smiled as she looked up at the Source.

“Well, _that_ was pointless,” the Source said, glaring critically at the four-hundred-year-old vampire. He’d already eliminated the Three for their failure- after all, if they couldn’t stop _one_ Charmed One, they were no good to him- but, given the continued presence of Angelus, he had decided to retain Darla’s services for the moment. “Out of idle curiosity, what did you _achieve_ with your little ‘visit’ to Angelus?”

Darla smiled. “A few things,” she replied, grinning casually back at the Source, as though he were merely another vampire rather than the most powerful magic-based demon in the world. “Namely, I came up with a plan to eliminate one of the Charmed Ones.”

“Which is…?” the Source asked, waving a hand in a prompting manner.

Darla smiled. “Simple; Angel kills one of them and comes back to the fold.”

The Source smiled. “Angelus!” he said, grinning at the memory of his past observations of the vampire. “He was the most vicious creature of your kind that I have ever met.”

He sighed slightly as he glanced upwards, his face a brief expression of longing and sadness. “I miss him…”

Darla nodded, staring regretfully upwards at where her childe walked among the mortals, trying to deny his nature because of his accursed soul. “So do I.”

The Source nodded thoughtfully for a few moments, then looked at Darla in confusion.

“A tiny flaw in your plan, my dear,” he said, raising a finger to emphasise his point. “Why would he kill one of the Charmed Ones if he feels for the youngest?”

Darla smiled. “Simple; to keep them from killing him.”

“Hmm…” the Source said, nodding in approval of Darla’s bold scheme.

He had to admit, he liked the sound of _that_ part of the plan…

* * *

  
Sighing as she stared at the forms in front of her, Piper wondered exactly _how_ she’d allowed herself to get roped into this situation. When the sun had gone down, Phoebe and Cole had gone out to see if they could find Angelus- based on Paige’s rather worryingly… _detailed_ description of him- while Leo went up to ask the Elders if they knew anything about Angelus’s sudden return to the world at large, leaving Paige and Piper with a choice; keep an eye on P3, or stay at home and check over the bills for the club, along with maybe a few anti-vampire spells. Paige had volunteered to attend to the bills, knowing how much her sister disliked them, but Piper had insisted; if Angel came back to the manor, Piper was the most capable of stopping him until their could find out more. Besides, Angel was highly unlikely to attack Paige in a public place like P3, and even if he did, Paige could easily find a place to orb out and have Leo use some memory dust a bit later.

She just wished this wasn’t so damn _boring_ …

There was a knock on the door.

Sighing, Piper stood up and walked over to the door, leaving the bills on the table; she’d yet to start consulting the Book of Shadows, so she didn’t need to worry about hiding it. She opened the door, and was surprised to see a young blonde woman, maybe around Paige’s age, standing there, dressed in black leather pants and a tight blue top, looking at Piper curiously.

“Hi; I’m Darla,” the woman said, smiling at the confused Piper. “I’m an old friend of Paige’s; I just came back into town after a business trip and wanted to catch up, and the landlord told me she’d moved here. Is she in?”

“Uh… no, she’s not,” Piper said, looking at the woman in confusion. The story sounded plausible, she had to admit, but why the hell was this woman coming to see Paige at eleven o’clock at night? What could she have to say that would be so urgent? Catching up with an old friend just didn’t make sense…

“Oh; sorry to hear that,” Darla said, looking behind her briefly with a nervous glance before turning back to Piper. “Anyway, can I just come in for a moment? It’s been a long trip, and I wouldn’t mind a drink of something before I go.”

“OK…” Piper said, nodding in acceptance as she turned back to the kitchen. She might as well be a good host, she guessed. “Well, come on in and I’ll get you something.”

Smiling in thanks, Darla stepped through the door and followed Piper into the kitchen.

“Sorry about the mess; I’ve been checking over the bills,” Piper said, as she picked up a glass and glanced back at Darla. “Anything in particular.”

“Oh yes,” Darla smiled…

Then, suddenly, her forehead elonogated, she sprouted fangs, and her eyes turned gold, and before Piper could do anything, Darla had lunged at her and bitten down into her neck, strangling her attempt to call for Leo.

* * *

  
Outside the manor, Angel swallowed nervously as he began to walk up the steps towards the door.

 _You can do this…_ he told himself. _It’s simple. Just get in, ask her to hear you out, tell her about the curse, then let her make her call as to how she feels_ …

Unless, of course, she just staked him as soon as she saw who was outside.

That thought made Angel pause, his hand already raised to knock on the door.

Could he take that risk? She’d seemed pretty clear on her feelings about Cole, and there wasn’t really that much difference between him and the man formerly known as Belthazor. After all, they _were_ both long-time killers with souls; what if Paige couldn’t see past that?

No, it wasn’t worth it; he’d be best to just leave now…

And then a loud scream was heard from inside the house.

Angel didn’t even stop to think; he spun around, kicked the door open (Fortunately only the lock was damaged in the impact) and charged into the house. The source of the scream was quickly found, as was the reason for it; Darla was in the kitchen, drinking from the neck of the eldest Charmed One.

“Let her go!” Angel roared, his face vamping out as he glared at Darla, who just raised her head and smiled back at him as though she was a little girl whose father had caught her with her hand in the cookie jar.

“I just had a _little_ ,” she said, pouting in a manner that would have been cute if she’d looked younger and had more on. “There's plenty more.”

She jerked her head inquiringly at the bleeding wound on Piper’s neck. “Aren't you hungry for something warm after all this time? Come on, Angel… just say 'Yes'!”

And at the word ‘Yes’, she threw Piper into Angel’s arms, the scent of warm blood instantly assaulting his nostrils. The demon within him was clamouring for control, begging him to bite the neck and drain the blood of the witch…

 _NO!_ Angel roared inwardly, as he turned away from the bite.

He’d given in once since leaving Darla, and it had driven him into solitude for nearly forty years until Whistler found him; he wouldn’t go down that road again…

“Welcome home!” Darla said, smiling as Angel looked at her in rage and confusion, his game face still on as she turned around and ran for the garden door. Angel was compelled to follow her, but at the same time, he couldn’t bring himself to leave the blood… the rich, warm blood spreading out from Piper's neck… the _blood_ …

“OH MY GOD!” a voice said from behind him.

Angel swore under his breath. One of his more basic lessons with Paige had been encouraging her to explore her Whitelighter instincts as sensing when her ‘charges’ were in danger. She hadn’t had the chance to really practice it earlier, but she had used her sisters for practice; she must have sensed Piper’s plight and orbed home as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, given the glare that she was looking at Angel with, it hadn’t been soon enough for her to see Darla…

As she raised her hand, Angel didn’t stop to find out what she would call to her; he laid Piper down on the ground as gently as he could in as short a time as possible, turned for the nearest window, and leapt out of it, shielding his eyes with him arms as he hit the ground and rolled, landing on his feet as he turned to look at the Manor. As he’d expected, Paige was standing there, looking at him with an expression of hate on his face that he’d never seen there before, and only wished he’d never had to…

“You're not welcome here,” Paige said, glaring at him as she raised one arm, a butcher’s knife clutched in it; that must have been what she’d orbed to her while he’d leapt. “You come _near_ us… and I'll kill you.”

Angel didn’t answer; he just turned and walked away.

The condition Paige was in right now, he had no chance of explaining the situation to her. He’d give her a bit of time to get Piper to a hospital- a blood transfusion would be required for the bites, even if Leo could heal the injuries that the blood had been lost by- wait for her to regain consciousness and reveal that there had been someone else there, and _then_ try to talk to her again.

All he needed to do now was stay out of their way until that happened…


	8. Paige Versus Darla

An hour or so later, Paige and Leo were sitting in a hospital room, looking anxiously at Piper as she lay on the hospital bed, the machine beside her beeping regularly the only sign that she was even still alive.

As soon as Leo had arrived, he’d wanted to heal the injury on Piper’s neck from where Angel had attacked her, but Paige had been forced to stop him; she wasn’t sure whether or not their Whitelighter abilities could restore the blood Piper had lost, but she’d prefer that Leo just healed the worst of the injuries and get Piper to a hospital rather than heal the wounds completely and have to come up with another explanation as to why a healthy woman needed a blood transfusion when they learned that the blood was still gone. Piper had been given a blood transfusion once they’d had time to explain the situation, and her condition appeared stable, but that still didn’t seem to comfort her distraught half-sister.

“Damnit…” Paige muttered to herself, after nearly ten minutes of silence since they had been allowed into the room. “How could I have let this _happen_?”

“Paige…” Leo said, reaching over to place a hand on her shoulder, “it wasn’t _your fault_ -”

“Then whose was it?” Paige asked, looking harshly at him. “ _I_ was the one who invited him in, Leo. _I_ was the one who trusted him. _I_ was the one who didn’t bother trying to find out if there was some way we could keep him out…”

She sighed and stared back at her sister, clenching her fists resolutely as she stood up. “That’s it; he’s going down.”

“Uh… Paige?” Leo said, looking at his sister-in-law nervously. “I really don’t think-”

“DON’T,” Paige said, looking harshly at Leo. “This is _my_ mess; it’s time I cleaned up the trash. _Don’t_ talk me out of it, OK? I’ll call you if I need you.”

As his sister-in-law orbed out, leaving him standing alone in the room, Leo swallowed nervously and could only pray that Paige knew what she was doing…

* * *

  
In a distant apartment, the only sources of modern comfort the single lightbulb and the fridge containing packets of blood, Angel sat slumped in a chair, an empty bag of blood in his hand, staring blankly ahead at nothing, trying to tune out the taunting voice of his sire as she walked around him.

“She’ll be hunting you soon,” Darla said teasingly, running her fingers along Angel’s left arm seductively as she walked past him, before leaning over to say her next sentence in his ear. “She wants to _kill_ you…”

“Leave me alone,” Angel grunted, holding up one hand in a half-hearted gesture to ward Darla away. He just wanted to be alone right now…

“What did you think?” Darla asked, walking around in front of Angel to look at him critically. “Did you think she would understand? That she would look at your face... your _true_ face... and give you a kiss?”

Angel just turned his head; he knew what his sire was trying to do, and he wasn’t going to rise to the bait.

Unfortunately, Darla wasn’t willing to let him off that easily.

“For a hundred years you've not had a moment's peace because you will not accept who you are,” she said, as she walked towards him with a harsh glare in her eyes. “That's all you have to do. Accept it. Don't let her hunt you down. Don't whimper and mewl like a mangy human. Kill! Feed! Live!”

And that was it; Angel had been pushed to his limit. Jumping up, Angel grabbed Darla by the throat and thrust her against the wall, grabbing both her arms with his available hand and pinning them above her head as he glared at her.

“Alright!” he roared at her in frustration. “You win! I want it _finished_!”

Then he dropped her to the ground, turned around to the door of the apartment, and stormed out, leaving Darla smiling after him.

“That's good,” she said, calling after him. “You hurt me.”

She chuckled slightly. “That's good, too.”

She just hoped that he would go as far as she hoped he would…

* * *

  
Standing in the middle of P3 (Fortunately closed for the night; Paige had made up some cock-and-bull story about a drainage problem that she was getting checked over to get everyone cleared out when she’d arrived), a sharpened stake clutched tightly in one hand, Paige stared around her, her fingers flexing slightly as she held the stake in her hand.

She wasn’t sure if this was where Angel had hidden himself, but she knew that the odds of him being here were good; if he wanted to kill them, she was the only one in a fixed location that he could reach. Piper wasn’t an option- the hospital was too well-protected, and Leo could probably get her out of harm’s way if the need arose- and Phoebe was with Cole, who could probably fry Angel with an energy ball before he even got close to her sister.

That left her for him to hunt, and this was the most likely location for her to look for him.

“I know you're there,” Paige said, deciding she might as well test her theory. “And I know what you are.”

“Do you?” a voice said from behind her, and Paige tensed up.He _was_ here…

This was it.

Kill or be killed.

Swallowing, she turned to face his voice as Angel stepped out of the shadows of the club, his fangs bared and his forehead and face the inhuman mask of the vampire.

Apparently nonchalant at the stake in her hand, Angel just glared at her and shrugged slightly. “I'm just an animal, right?”

“You're not an animal,” Paige said, shaking her head as she raised the stake slightly. “Animals I like.”

Looking back at her, Angel just growled and tensed slightly, as though waiting for a signal to move.

“Let's get it done!” he roared at her, as he leapt onto a nearby table and jumped up towards the ceiling before Paige could even open her mouth to orb a chair into his path. Even as Paige tried to turn around to look for him, he’d jumped down behind her and kicked her once in the back, sending her flying into a table.

Remembering a trick she’d seen in a movie once, Paige lunged out behind her with her left leg, smiling as she felt it connect with Angel. She may not have superhuman strength, but she still was no slouch in the physical department; besides, his surprise at her ability to strike back couldn’t have failed to be an asset. Grabbing the stake from where it had fallen (She’d released her grip on reflex after Angel hit her) she spun around again to face him, looking him in the eye as he staggered to his feet and growled at her.

The message was clear.

First one to move would lose.

Eventually, Angel broke the silence that had descended on the two of them, looking at Paige with an exasperated expression.

“C'mon!” the vampire yelled at Paige in frustration. “Don't go soft on me now!”

Nodding resolutely, Paige thrust the stake towards Angel…

And it hit the wall next to him, at least a foot and a half away from his chest.

Looking at the stake, Angel smiled slightly as he glanced back at Paige. “Little wide,” he said simply.

Swallowing nervously as Angel looked back at her, Paige decided she might as well take advantage of this momentary lapse in the fighting to find out the one thing she really wanted to know.

“Why?” she asked Angel, trying to conceal the pain she felt as she looked at him. “Why didn't you just attack me when you had the chance? Was it a joke? To make me feel for you and then...”

She stopped herself; she couldn’t go there. Instead, she turned back to glare at Angel, hate flaring in her eyes.

“I've killed a lot of demons,” she told him bluntly. “I've never hated one before.”

“Feels good, doesn't it?” Angel asked, shrugging as he looked back at her. “Feels simple.”

Paige almost couldn’t believe how… _casual_ he was being about this.

“I invited you into my home and then you attacked my family!” she yelled at him.

“Why not?” Angel said, shrugging in an apparently offhand manner. “I killed mine.”

 _Oh God_ … Paige thought to herself, stepping back slightly despite herself. She knew she should have expected it, but to hear it from his own lips…

“I killed their friends... and their friend's children...” Angel continued, as he stared at Paige. “For a hundred years I offered ugly death to everyone I met, and I did it with a song in my heart.”

“What changed?” Paige asked, trying to stay calm. Maybe it was a foolish hope, but she wanted to know exactly _what_ had prompted Angel’s change of heart all those years ago…

Angel just shrugged casually as he looked at Paige. “Fed on a girl about your age,” he said, as though it was no big deal. “Beautiful... dumb as a post... but a favourite among her clan.”

“Her clan?” Paige said, growing more and more confused by the minute.

“Romany,” Angel explained, looking at Paige as he continued to talk. “Gypsies. The elders conjured the perfect punishment for me. They restored my soul.”Paige blinked in surprise.

“That’s it?” she asked, looking at Angel as though trying to figure out if there was something else she should know about. “What, they were all out of boils and blinding torment?”

Angel shook his head. “When you become a vampire, the demon takes your body, but it doesn't get your soul,” he explained. “That's gone. No conscience, no remorse... It's an easy way to live.”

Paige nodded thoughtfully as she listened. She had to admit, it did tie in with what Cole had told her and the others about Angel’s kind of vampire, but what did the soul have to do with it?

Then she realised.

It meant that, now that he had his soul back, he _could_ care about what he’d done…

“You have no idea what it's like to have done the things I've done... and to care,” Angel explained, confirming her earlier theory. “All the memories, plaguing me no matter how hard I try to forget them… the faces of the lives I ruined or destroyed… I haven't fed on a living human being since that day.”

“So you started with Piper?” Paige asked, trying to get herself back on topic.

Angel just shook his head. “I didn't bite her.”

“Then why didn't you say something?” Paige retaliated, trying not to show how relieved she was to learn that…

“I wanted to,” Angel explained simply. He didn’t need to elaborate; Paige could guess what he meant.

Just because the soul was there now didn’t mean the demon had gone…

“I can walk like a man, but I'm not one,” Angel continued, sighing as he looked back at Paige. “A part of me wanted to kill you tonight.

Paige looked at her stake briefly, and then back at Angel. Putting the stake down on the floor, she walked towards him and tilted her head to one side, letting her hair fall to one side to reveal her neck.

“Go ahead,” she said casually. She knew this was a risk, but she was prepared; if he _did_ try anything, she could just orb out as soon as he grabbed her…

But Angel did nothing; he just looked at her in silence.Smiling slightly at her theory being proved correct, Paige stepped back and looked at Angel.“Not as easy as it looks,” she told him simply.

“Sure it is!” a third voice said.Spinning around, Paige found herself staring at a blonde woman in a blue top and black leather pants, smiling at her with a wicked gleam in her eyes.

“Aw crap…” Paige muttered under her breath, already knowing this chick was bad news.

* * *

  
In the hospital, as Leo stared at his still-unconscious wife, Phoebe and Cole still out on a search, he had never been more relieved to see Piper’s eyes twitch open than he was now.

“Ugh…” she groaned, blinking her eyes rapidly as though to clear them as she stared at her husband. “Leo?”

“Piper!” Leo cried in relief, reaching over and grabbing her in his arms; he had never been more relieved than he was then that the only thing Piper was linked up to was a heart-rate monitor.“Uh… last time I checked,” Piper said, smiling at her husband weakly as he pulled back from her. “What happened to me?”

Leo swallowed slightly at that part; this was the bit he wasn’t looking forward to. On the one hand, he didn’t want to risk Paige having any _more_ trouble to deal with…

But, on the other hand, Piper deserved the truth.

“You… you were attacked by Angel,” Leo said, already wishing he wasn’t in this position. “Phoebe, Cole, and Paige are out looking for him, but-”

“Angel?” Piper asked, looking at Leo in confusion. “It wasn’t Angel; it was some woman called Darla.”

Leo’s eyes widened in horror.

“ _Darla_!” he asked, staring at Piper, shock and fear etched on his face. “You’re sure?”

“Uh… yeah,” Piper said, looking at Leo in confusion. “Is that bad?”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Leo replied, as he quickly went over what he could do next. If he moved fast, he _might_ be able to reach Paige and let her know about this new factor, but quite frankly he’d prefer to have a bit of back-up before going into a battle situation to try and stop Paige from killing a vampire who had apparently not done what they thought he’d done…

OK, so he _was_ still a vampire; Leo would just prefer not to attack him until he actually tried to _do_ something to them for real.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said to his wife, leaning over and giving her a brief kiss on the forehead before orbing out.

* * *

  
In the darkness of P3, Darla and Paige were facing each other with a resolute expression on their faces, each one waiting for the other to make the first move as Angel stood on the sidelines, the demon and the soul within him each clamouring for him to help the person the other side wanted dead.

“Do you know what the saddest thing in the world is?” Darla asked after a few moments, breaking the silence that had descended on the club upon her arrival.

“Bad hair on top of that outfit?” Paige retorted, indicating Darla’s blue top and black trousers.

Darla chuckled slightly at that comment, but it was a dry, humourless laugh. “To love someone who used to love you.”

Paige’s eyes widened slightly in surprise as she glanced between Angel and Darla, realisation dawning in her eyes. “You guys were involved?”

“For several generations,” Darla retorted, glaring at Paige as though to say _Beat that_.

To her credit, Paige didn’t appear bothered; she just glanced over at Angel and shrugged nonchalantly.

“Well, what with you having been around since Columbus, you _are_ bound to pile up a few ex's,” she said casually, as she looked back at Darla. “You're older than him, right? Just a bit of advice; you should consider more make-up. You _are_ looking a little worn around the eyes.”

Darla didn’t even seem to hear the taunt; she just smiled as she looked back at Paige.

“I made him,” she told the young witch bluntly, as she turned to look at Angel once again. “There was a time when we shared everything, wasn't there Angelus? You had a chance to come home, to rule with me alongside the Source for a thousand years, but you threw that away because of _her_?” she asked indicating Paige in anger. “You love someone who hates us.”

Paige’s eyes widened at that comment.

Angel _loved_ her…?

Then she shook her head and turned her attention back to the current confrontation; Darla was still talking, and she knew better now than to underestimate this woman, to matter how much of a basket case she was.

“You're sick,” Darla informed Angel, who just stared back at her; either he wasn’t paying attention to her ranting, or he just didn’t care. “And you'll always be sick. And you'll always remember what it was like to watch her die.”

 _Aw crap_ … Paige thought to herself, as Darla turned back to look at her with a smile on her face.

“You don't think I came alone, do you?” the vampiress asked Paige, raising an eyebrow.

“I know I didn't.” Paige retorted, as she raised the hand with the stake in it and raised it behind her head, as though preparing to throw it at Darla.

“Hmm… scary,” Darla said casually as she looked at the stake in the witch’s hand. Then, to Paige’s shock, she reached behind her back and pulled out two old-fashioned Colt pistols, one in each hand; Paige had somehow never thought of _demons_ using _guns_.

“Scarier!” the vampiress added, smiling wickedly at Paige before she spun around to fire a few bullets at Angel, sending him staggering back into a nearby wall.

Glancing over at Paige, Darla giggled at the brief expression of fear that had appeared on the witch’s face.

“Oh, don't worry,” she said, in a tone of such blatantly false concern that it wouldn’t have fooled a two-year-old. “Bullets can't kill vampires. Can hurt them like hell, but...”

Paige wasn’t interested in learning any more; she quickly orbed, Darla shooting at her even as she vanished. Reappearing behind a fallen table, Paige could only take cover behind it, praying desperately that someone would find her soon…

* * *

  
“So, wait a minute; you’re telling me _Darla_ attacked Piper?” Cole asked Leo as they stood outside P3; Leo had quickly found Phoebe and Cole, but hadn’t bothered to explain the situation to them before he’d orbed them to close to Paige’s current location, leaving him little time to explain his latest discovery.

“But does that really matter?” Phoebe asked, looking at Leo in confusion. “I mean, Angel’s still who you thought he was; shouldn’t we-”

“The fact that _Darla_ was the one who attacked Piper is enough to make me reconsider,” Leo explained, as he glanced over at Phoebe critically. “After Cole, I would have thought-”

A loud bang was heard from inside the club, and the three of them looked at each other in sudden panic.

“Did you just hear...?” Phoebe asked nervously.

Leo nodded.“Gunshot,” he said simply, as Cole and Phoebe grabbed his arms as he began to orb.

* * *

  
“So many body parts, so few bullets,” Darla tutted to herself, her guns raised as she stared at the table that Paige was using as a shield. “Let's begin with the kneecaps. No fun dancing without them.”

Squeezing the triggers, Darla launched off a few more rounds, Paige wincing as she heard the pool table take a few hits; she was going to have to pay for _that_ in the morning.

Of course, the way things were going, it would be a miracle if she even _saw_ the morning…

 _Then_ again, Paige thought to herself, staring at a stake lying on the ground where she’d dropped it earlier in her dive for shelter, _maybe there’s another way…_

She didn’t even stop to think; standing up, Paige yelled out “Stake!”, watched as the stake turned into blue-white orbs, and hurled the orbs in Darla’s direction, the stake reappearing just as it struck the female vampire in the abdomen.

 _YES_! Paige thought, clenching a fist to punch the air in relief…

Only to stop as, much to her shock, Darla straightened back up once again, apparently unharmed from the stake in her gut.

“Close,” Darla said, smiling as she glanced at the witch, “but no heart.”

Grabbing the stake in both hands, Darla yanked it out of her body and tossed it aside.

_The game is on…_

* * *

  
At the back of the club (Leo had orbed them into a back room to avoid attracting attention) Leo, Cole and Phoebe had dived out of the back door while Darla’s attention was occupied with Paige, and were crawling along the floor.

“We need to distract her, fast!” Cole hissed over at Leo and Phoebe. “I can’t get off an energy ball in time at this distance; she’d shoot me before I’d even prepared a decent blast!”

“Right,” Phoebe nodded, as she raised her head above the chairs to make her voice clearer.

“Paige!” she called out to her sister, praying she could get her point across before the blonde madwoman turned her guns on them, “it wasn't Angel who attacked Piper! It was Darla!”

Turning towards the voice, Darla let loose with a hail of bullets, forcing the three new arrivals to lunge to the floor for cover. Turning her attention back on Paige, Darla hopped up onto the pool table. Paige jumped up, grabbed the edge of the table and pulled, knocking Darla onto her back. Pushing the table away, Paige started to run for cover, even as Darla fired off a few rounds even lying on her back after being knocked off the table. Paige leapt for cover over another table in a dive roll as bullets practically surrounded her.

Standing up, Darla scanned the club for Paige, apparently unconcerned about the others; then again, right now not even Leo, Phoebe or Cole were really sure where _anyone_ was in relation to them, and nobody was very keen on looking up and getting a faceful of lead. Even Cole’s demonic healing powers might not be a match for vampire reflexes, and he was far from eager to find out how he’d last if he was _shot_ in a fight.

“C'mon, Paige,” the vampire said, looking at the half-Whitelighter’s current hiding place with a wicked gleam in her eye. “Take it like a man!”

Then, before she could even hear him, Angel came up behind her and, a resolved expression on his face, plunged a leg from a broken table into her back. She is surprised and cries out in pain. She turns to look at her attacker.

“Angel?” Darla gasped weakly, as she saw her former favourite childe standing there, staring at her with a grim expression as her face and body collapsed into ashes, ending four hundred years of terror in a matter of moments.

Rising up from the floor to look at the sight before her, Paige could only stare at Angel as he glanced up at her, a blank expression on his face as their eyes locked. Then, after a moment’s pause, he turned and walked out of the club, leaving Paige, Phoebe, Leo and Cole staring after him in surprise.

Eventually, Cole broke the silence, glancing down at Darla’s ashes and looking around at his friends curiously.

“Anyone got a dust-pan?” he asked, smiling weakly in acknowledged of how poor the joke was.

* * *

  
The next night, the three Halliwells were sitting in their usual area of P3, sipping their drinks as they glanced around the club; Leo and Cole had taken temporary charge of the bar due to the normal barman being off sick, as well as giving Piper a chance to talk to her sisters. A few parts of the club still showed signs of the damage that had been done in their little fight with Darla at the end, and Piper’s neck still itched where the vampiress had bitten her, but she was already almost completely recovered. The hospital had only checked her out a few hours ago, but that was mainly to make sure she didn’t suffer a relapse all of a sudden.

“So… he was cursed?” Piper asked, looking at Paige curiously as she sipped at her drink. “With a soul?”

“Yeah…” Paige said, sighing as she sat back and stared up at the ceiling. “And the memory of everything he did when he didn’t have one. Always blaming himself for over a hundred and fifty years worth of death and destruction… Yikes.”

She sighed again.

“Miss him?” Phoebe asked, raising an eyebrow inquiringly. “I mean, I know you tried to kill him and all, but he gets that you’re sorry for it, right?”

“Yeah, I think so…” Paige said, nodding thoughtfully as she sighed again. “I just wish I could apologise, you know?”

“Well, you’ve got your chance,” Phoebe said, indicating a position behind Paige. “He’s standing right over there.”

Glancing around, Paige’s eyes widened as she saw Angel standing at the door of the club, looking at her with his usual blank expression.

“Hi,” she said to him, wishing it didn’t sound so weak.

“Hi,” he replied back, before indicating Piper and Phoebe with a jerk of his head. “I just wanted to see if you were okay. And your sisters.”

“We're all good,” Paige assured him, before looking at Angel inquiringly. “You?”

“If I can go a little while without getting shot or stabbed, I'll be alright,” Angel said casually, before he looked at Paige with a more serious expression. “Look, this can't...”

“...ever be anything?” Paige asked, raising a critical eyebrow at Angel. “Why; because you’re around two hundred and twenty years older than I am? Angel, my sisters are _both_ dating guys old enough to be their _grandfathers_ ; why should I be the odd one out? OK, you’re a bit older, but you’re at least a bit more in touch with the world than Leo can be at times, right? Besides, if it’s the vampire thing you’re worried about… well, we don’t really deal with vampires that much, and the way I see it, it’s not like _they’re_ a major concern for us.”

Reaching over, she placed a hand on Angel’s shoulder and looked him in the eyes.

“If you want us to give it a shot… I’m game,” she said simply.

Angel looked back at her for a moment, and Paige briefly wondered if he was still going to tell her ‘No’…

Then he smiled slightly and nodded.

“I’d like that,” he said simply.

Grinning as well, Paige leaned in and kissed Angel, revelling once more in the taste of his lips as he raised his hands to clasp her shoulders, pulling her closer to him as theirs tongues began an intimate dance once again. The cool flesh of his hands sent a pleasant thrill running through Paige’s body as she raised her own hands to clasp his shoulders, her mind reeling at the thought of finally having what she’d secretly been longing for since she first saw him.

Paige knew this wouldn’t be easy; she still had to convince her sisters to let Angel stick around, to say nothing of how Cole and Leo would react to having a vampire who spread terror across an entire continent for over a century hanging around the house…

But, in the end, she would be with the man- or vampire, whatever you wanted to call him- that she had come to love.

And she wouldn’t have it any other way.


	9. Familiar Faces

On the distant outskirts of San Francisco, on a hilltop overlooking the vast city before them, in the darkness that one could only achieve at midnight, two figures stood on the hill and looked at the vast city before them.

One was a tall man with bleached platinum hair, dressed in a red silk shirt, black trousers and a black leather coat, an earring piercing his eyebrow and a wicked gleam in his eyes. The other was a woman, about the same height, dressed in a tight red dress with long black hair streaming down her back, and an expression in her eyes that made it clear that whatever pieces of sanity had once dwelt in her brain had long since departed.

At first glance, they might have appeared to just be a relatively normal couple out enjoying a night-time walk in the country- the woman may be slightly impaired mentally, but many would have put her down as a relative of the man who he was now keeping an eye on following some accident or another- but when you went closer to them, you swiftly realised that there was a quality about them that no human being could ever possess; a sense that you were in the presence of such great evil that you either wanted to run away before they could reach you, or kill them where you stood.

“He’s there, pet?” the man asked, looking at the woman curiously. “Just, no offence, but you were wrong about him being in that Sunnydale place before; why are you so sure now?”

“The webs had become twisted, my poetic knight,” the woman replied, smiling at the woman slightly as she spoke. “The web was naughty, showing me only what should have been; this is what is, and it is definite. He dwells with the white and the grey now; angels, demons, and sisters, united as friends against us, and the youngest has corrupted Daddy to be her pet.”

Glancing down at the city before her, the woman’s eyes briefly flashed in rage. “They have taken what should have been ours…”

“Easy, pet,” the man said, placing a calming hand on her shoulder. “We’ll get them for what they did; don’t worry about it.”

* * *

  
“Morning!” Paige smiled brightly to Phoebe as she walked down the stairs, still wearing her pyjamas while her sister was already wearing jeans and a blouse. Then again, Phoebe _was_ preparing for another stab at a job interview this morning, while Paige didn’t even have to go into work; she’d been given a few days off.

Smiling slightly as she glanced up at her sister, Phoebe raised an enquiring eyebrow.

“Angel took you out somewhere last night, huh?” she asked dryly.

“What?” Paige asked, managing to look genuinely hurt as she looked back at her sister from where she’d just put some bread into the toaster. “Why do you _always_ assume that I’m only happy because I spent some time with my boyfriend?”

“The fact that you’re suddenly a major morning person at the weekends and non-work days _without_ the aid of coffee?” Phoebe asked, looking over at Paige critically. “You know, you really need to start telling us if you’re going out anywhere with him; what if we need you all of a sudden?”

“Hello?” Paige said, waving her hand casually at Phoebe’s face. “Part-Whitelighter here, remember? I can get back any time I want; all you’ve got to do is call me, remember?”

Phoebe just decided to pretend she hadn’t heard that comment; if she said anything now, it would just make her appear petty.

Still, a part of her _hated_ the fact that Paige was so… _accepting_ of Angel… after he’d tormented an entire continent for a century and a half, and yet still didn’t seem to trust Cole, even after Cole had saved their lives so many times where Angel had only recently become known to them. She’d thought about confronting her younger sister about it, but had decided not to in the end; she didn’t want to appear petty and childish about a relatively trivial matter.

“So, where was it this time?” she asked; she might as well appear friendly, after all.

Paige shrugged dismissively. “Just a movie,” she said casually, as she grabbed a plate and put a piece of toast on for herself. “Went well, thanks for asking; had a little run-in with a couple of vampires at the end who wanted to make a name for themselves, but the situation was easy to handle.”

“ _More_ vampires?” Phoebe said, looking at her younger sister in surprise.Paige shrugged in a half-hearted manner.

“Yeah, I know; they’ve been popping out of the woodwork, haven’t they?” she said, as she sat down at the table and began to cover her toast with marmalade. “Wonder what that’s all about, really. I mean, you would’ve thought that they’d have given up after we took out Darla; she _was_ one of the biggest vampires around back in the old days. After her, wouldn’t the others realise that they don’t have a hope?”

“Have demons _ever_ been known to be sensible?” Piper asked, as she walked down the stairs to join her sisters in the kitchen, dressed in a maroon top and jeans. “Just because vampires were human once doesn’t make them an exception to that rule, right?”

Paige nodded. “Good point,” she said, nodding thoughtfully as she sipped at her coffee. “Just wish I could get rid of this annoying feeling that there’s something coming…”

“Something coming?” Phoebe asked, looking at Paige in confusion. “What are you talking about? _I’m_ the one with the premonitions, remember; you’re just the Whitelighter.”

“I know…” Paige said, sighing as she stared into her coffee. “I just can’t shake this idea that there’s something going on that we should be worried about…”

Rolling her eyes, she shrugged half-heartedly. “Must be getting paranoid, huh?”

“Yeah… paranoid… that’s it,” Piper said, nodding as she began to prepare a few sausages. She wished she could believe her own words, though; Paige’s instincts had been correct about that house with the demon who turned people into dolls, so why would they be wrong now?

* * *

  
“Damnit!” the Source yelled, as he glared angrily at the various vampires who had congregated around him recently. “I invite you all here for the _sole_ purpose of taking out Angelus and Miss Matthews, and _none_ of you can pull it off? The night of St Vigeous is coming up this weekend, and I don’t seem _any_ of you capable of killing even the _seer_ before that time has passed!”

“B-but my lord…” one vampire said, looking at the Source apologetically, “please… if you just give us another chance…”

“I have given you _more_ than enough chances!” the Source roared, as he glared around the vampires angrily. He should have known when he started this that including vampires in his arsenal against the Charmed Ones would be a poor move, but he had to admit that, at the time, it had seemed a good move.

After all, vampires, unlike demons could not be defeated by a spell, merely by a stake to the heart, and only the eldest of the Charmed Ones had a power that would allow them to stand against vampires in one-on-one combat. That had, at the time, not seemed a particularly major concern, as the raw strength of the vampires, coupled with their natural knack for stealth, should have allowed them to get past any of the Charmed Ones or their allies before the eldest could blow any of the vampires up with her own powers…

Then Angelus had begun to date the youngest Charmed One, and all his reasoning about recruiting these walking corpses had gone to pot.

With a vampire on _their_ side as well as against them, the Charmed Ones not only knew how to deal with their newfound opponents, but also had the natural advantage of Angelus’s combat experience. Thanks to his training, the youngest Charmed One had become a formidable hand-to-hand fighter, and it was now proving remarkably difficult to put her down even when Angelus _wasn’t_ there….

“Having some Slayer problems?” a voice said from the back of the chamber.

Looking back at the source of the voice, the Source and the vampires were surprised to see two new arrivals standing there.

One was a tall, dark-haired woman, dressed in a tight red dress as her long hair streamed down her back, a gleam in her eyes that made it apparent to all that she was missing more than a few marbles as far as her intellect was concerned.

The other figure had hair that was so pale it was almost white, dressed in black trousers, a blood-red shirt, and a long black leather coat, as well as a piercing above his right eyebrow.

And they appeared utterly indifferent as to _who_ was standing in front of them.

The Source hadn’t even spoken to them, and he already didn’t like them.

“No; we’re having some _witch_ problems,” the Source said, glaring harshly at the vampire who had spoken; the male one, to be precise. “And a rogue vampire and demon, come to that; don’t you keep up with the times around here?”

The vampire raised his hands in a calming gesture.

“Whoa, easy there, Sourcey,” he said, looking at the Source in an attempted casual manner. “We’re actually just here to take a look around and see if we can find my grandsire; chap called Angelus, heard of him?”

“Angelus?” the Source said, raising a surprised eyebrow.

This may actually work to his advantage after all…

“You seek to confront Angelus, mm?” the Source said, looking curiously at Spike as he stepped down from his throne and walked over to confront the vampire. “And, if you do not mind my asking, what are your… credentials?”

Pulling a packet of cigarettes and a lighter out of his pocket, Spike pulled out a cigarette, stuck it between his lips, lit it, took a brief breath, and then removed the cigarette, blowing the smoke off to one side before he looked back at the Source.

“Killed two Slayers in the past hundred years,” he said casually. “That good enough for you?”

The Source raised an eyebrow, unwilling to fully express how impressive he found that performance. He had little experience of Slayers himself- he commonly fought witches in his life- but he knew enough about them to know it, in the majority of cases, they were eliminated by demons rather than the vampires they had been almost _bred_ to kill.

For one vampire to have eliminated _two_ of them by himself…

The Source would be lying if he said he wasn’t impressed.

“Very well,” he said, looking at Spike. “You will have a chance to prove what you are capable of.”

“Goody!” the female said, clapping her hands slightly as she turned to look at the male. “Save the Daddy-stealer for me, please, Spike? My brave knight…”

Spike chuckled.“Anything for you, luv,” he assured her, a grin on his face as he spoke. However, the Source knew emotion well; it was clear to him that, whoever the ‘Daddy-stealer’ was, Spike was secretly slightly grateful to her for ‘stealing’… _Daddy_ (Whoever that was). True, he doubted it would result in Spike _not_ wanting to kill the Charmed Ones (Especially if he was correct in guessing _who_ the vampires were referring to) but still…

He shook it off; he’d give the vampire a chance to prove himself against the Charmed Ones, and _then_ see if it was worth his while to keep the vampire around in San Francisco.

* * *

  
“Whoa boy…” Phoebe sighed, as she sat down on her traditional chair in P3 and stared out at the mass of bodies before her. The day had, thankfully, passed without much of a problem for any of them (Angel had apparently had a minor scuffle with a couple of pickpockets earlier that night, but naturally the event had passed without anyone suffering too much damage), and, as always, they’d rendezvoused at P3 to wind down afterwards and enjoy a few drinks.

Glancing around the club, Phoebe noticed that Piper had apparently nipped off to the storeroom to get some more drinks, Paige was attracting a few stares on the dance floor (Although she declined any guys who tried to ask her to dance; with Angel’s having made their relationship official, she was strictly a one-man woman) and Angel had volunteered to run the bar while the others took some time out. Leo and Cole, unfortunately, were absent- Leo had been called up to the Elders on business and Cole was once again on the move to escape any assassins- but Phoebe was still confident that he’d be back soon enough.

She never thought she’d say this, but she was starting to wish that things would become a bit _more_ interesting. It wasn’t that she was becoming an adrenaline junkie (Although she had to admit, she _was_ starting to get a certain thrill out of vanquishing demons); it was the fact that, if the Underworld was this quite for this long, they were inevitably up to something major that would have serious consequences for the three of them…

Of course, it _was_ six of them these days, if you counted their respective significant others.

Then again, now that Phoebe thought about it, you’d have to; Leo, Cole and Angel all had powers of their own, so why shouldn’t they be counted as part and parcel of the ‘Charmed Ones Package’?

“Can I sit here?” a voice said from beside her.

“Cole!” Phoebe said, smiling as she turned to look in the direction of the voice and saw the ever-welcome sight of her boyfriend. She leaned towards him, intending to kiss him, but stopped when she saw the expression on his face.“Something wrong?” she asked, pulling back to allow him to sit down.

“You could say that,” Cole said, as he sat down beside Phoebe, an apprehensive expression on his face. “I just heard from an old contact of mine that this Saturday is the night of St. Vigeous.”

“Which is…what?” Phoebe asked curiously. “I take it he _isn’t_ a very nice saint?”

“Saint of vampires, actually,” Cole explained, sighing in frustration. “Guy led a crusade of vampires that swept through Edessa, Harran, and various eastern areas; his night is typically a major celebration among the vampire community.”

“And, lemme guess, ‘celebration’ for vampires means killing a bunch of people?” Phoebe asked, sighing as she leaned back in the seat. “And there was me hoping we’d have a slightly easier time of it from the vampire side of the supernatural coin…”

Cole shrugged apologetically.

“Hey; if it’s any consolation, we’ve got a bit of time to prepare for it,” he said, patting Phoebe on the shoulder reassuringly as he glanced around the bar. “Angel seems to be coping with the orders; maybe Piper ought to hire him.”

Phoebe glanced over critically at Cole, but before she could say anything, she heard someone say something off to one side.

“Where's the phone?” the voice said, apparently speaking to some people in a crowd off to one side. “I need to call the police; there's some big guy out there trying to _bite_ somebody!”

Phoebe didn’t even stop to think about it; she leapt up, grabbed Cole’s hand, and ran towards the alley; she knew that Paige and Angel were the resident vampire experts in their group, but they didn’t have the time right now…

She burst out the door, spun around into the alley, and she and Cole instantly found themselves staring at a male vampire holding a young woman who was trembling in fear. Phoebe didn’t even stop to think; releasing Cole’s hand, she leapt into the air and charged towards the vampire, grabbing him under the arms and hauling him a few feet into the air, causing him to release the woman.

As the vampire’s would be snack stared ahead of her in shock, Cole grabbed her arm and quickly shimmered, returning to the alley a few seconds later; evidently he’d found somewhere to leave the would-be victim where she’d be safe.

As soon as her boyfriend had reappeared, Phoebe dropped her captive vampire; unwilling to try anything against a foe she _knew_ was stronger than her without backup, she’d just flown around the alley, increasing in height as she did so, until any assistance showed up. As the vampire hurtled to the ground, Phoebe dived down after him, kicking him once in the head as they ‘fell’ to the ground, before landing on the ground beside Cole as the vampire hit a nearby pile of trash.

“GAGH!” the vampire screamed as it hit the ground.

“Ouch…” Cole muttered, wincing in evidently-mock sympathy. “I think he hit the pile of empty bottles.”

“Ah,” Phoebe said, as she turned back to glare at the vampire. “Well, since we’ve got the ‘introductions’ out of the way, how about we just cut right to the part where you give up and die?”

The vampire seemed to gain renewed strength from that comment. Glaring at Phoebe, he leapt up onto his feet (Wincing a little as he did so) and began to charge towards the witch and her demonic boyfriend once again…

Only to be met by a surprise spin-kick from Phoebe that sent him flying back once again.

“You care to finish this?” Phoebe asked, turning to look at Cole with a slight smile on her face.

“My pleasure,” Cole replied, as he raised his right hand and summoned an energy ball, grinning slightly as the vampire stared at the ball in terror, although his eyes then, for some reason, shifted to look between Phoebe and Cole.

“Uh, Spike?” the vampire said, apparently looking at someone behind his two soon-to-be killers. “Any chance of a hand here?”

Raising a curious eyebrow, Cole glanced behind himself even as he launched the energy ball, a part of him only just registering that Phoebe was looking as well as he heard the scream of burning vampire from behind him…

And stopped in surprise at the sight in front of him.

The man was evidently a vampire; he knew that much. Thanks to his demon’s heightened senses (Useful for tracking some of his targets, even if most witches could conceal themselves from anything that was looking for them), the man’s lack of a pulse made his nature easy enough to deduce, and as for his name…

Well, there certainly weren’t any _other_ vampires here their target could have been talking to.

“Nice work, Belthy,” the vampire said, nodding ‘politely’ at Cole as he took a drag on the cigarette between his teeth.

“You are?” Phoebe asked, stepping forward slightly as though preparing to fight.

The vampire, however, just shrugged casually. “You’ll find out on Saturday,” he said dismissively, as he began to turn to walk away.

“What happens on Saturday?” Cole called after the vampire as the new arrival prepared to walk around the corner of the alley. Pausing for a moment, the vampire reached up to his lips, took the cigarette between two fingers, and tossed it off to one side, before smiling slightly at the other two.

“That’s when I kill you,” he said casually.

Then he walked away, leaving Cole and Phoebe staring after him incredulously for a moment.

Then Cole sighed and glanced over at Phoebe.

“We’d better get back inside,” he said, indicating P3. “The others need to know.”

Nodding, Phoebe walked out of the alley and back into P3, Cole right behind her, hoping and praying that this vampire wouldn’t turn out to be a major player in the supernatural game…


	10. The Players are Explained

A few minutes later, Phoebe, Cole, Piper and Paige were sitting at their table, discussing Cole and Phoebe’s recent vampire encounter; Angel was currently occupied at the bar, but Piper had sent one of the regular staff to replace him after sorting out some drinks, so he’d be joining them in a few moments.

“This guy was called _Spike_?” Piper said, staring incredulously at her sister as she and Cole finished their story. “Where’d he get a name like that?”

“Well, it seems like a pretty good guess that he wasn’t _born_ with that name,” Phoebe said, looking around at her sisters as they went over the events of the story together.

“Look, no offence, but shouldn’t we be more concerned about this ‘Night of St Vigeous’ deal?” Paige pointed out, glancing over at Cole critically as she spoke. “And come to that, why are we so concerned about Spike? He can’t be worse than anything else we’ve ever dealt with, right?”

“He’s worse,” a voice said from behind them.

As the three sisters and Cole turned in the direction of the voice, they saw Angel standing there, an expression on his face that was partly concern and partly nothing; a couple of weeks of regular experience at the Halliwells’ family life didn’t completely break Angel out of the shell he’d erected around his emotions during his time away from humanity.

“Once he starts something he doesn't stop until everything in his path is dead,” Angel continued, looking slightly apologetically at Paige as he sat down beside the other witches.

“Ah,” Piper said, as she sat back in her seat and clasped her forehead in one hand. “So, we’ve got a goal-orientated killer on our backs. Well, _that’s_ not good…”

“Does this ‘Spike’ guy go by any other name?” Cole asked, as he leaned forward to look at his vampire ally inquiringly. “Just, the name sounds rather familiar now that I think about it…”

Angel shrugged. “He used to be called ‘William the Bloody’, but that was only when he was alive,” he explained, as he looked around the table.

“What, he was a killer even then?” Phoebe said, as she looked at Angel with a slightly shocked expression.

To everyone’s surprise, Angel chuckled slightly.“No, he wasn’t a killer,” the vampire said, one corner of his mouth turned up in a small smile as he looked around the table. “He was a poet… it’s just that his poetry was ‘bloody awful’!”

“What?” Phoebe said, looking incredulously at Angel. “That guy was a bad _poet_ , and he went on to become something you’re saying we should be _worried_ about? You’ve _got_ to be joking!”

The ‘smile’ falling from his face, Angel turned to look critically at Phoebe.

“You shouldn’t pass him off lightly,” Angel told the seer, a harsh expression on his face. “Trust me; I should know.”

“Why?” Paige asked, looking in concern over at her boyfriend. “Why should you _know_ that?”

Sighing slightly, Angel turned to look back at the young witch who had won his heart practically the moment he had met her, an evidently regretful expression on his face.

“Because I helped train him,” he said, as he looked sadly at his four ‘friends’, although a part of him still couldn’t believe that he was actually able to call the most powerful good witches on the planet- as well as a Whitelighter; Cole, as a demon himself, was almost expected- his _friends_ …

* * *

  
Meanwhile, in a not-too-distant apartment, all lights off, Drusilla, still dressed in her all-too-revealing red dress, stared at the screen before her, apparently unconcerned by the fact that it wasn’t even on. As she sat there, she cocked her head to one side, as though hearing something that she couldn’t quite place, and then turned to look at a large collection of dolls that had been placed around the bed. Reaching over, she picked one of the dolls up, stared at it for a moment, and then put it back down again before turning to look at the others.

“Miss Edith speaks out of turn,” she said to the other dolls, as if they had asked her a question, in a perfectly serious tone of voice. “She will have no cakes today.”

“Miss me, luv?” Spike asked as he entered the apartment, smiling slightly as he studied the surroundings. “Got to hand it to that Source guy; he may be a berk, but he’s got classy taste.”

“He doesn’t like us,” Drusilla said sadly as she looked back at Spike. “He doesn’t believe that the stars will let me read them right so they can favour us.” Her gaze turned to the ceiling as she continued talking. “I sometimes think that all my hair will fall out and I’ll be bald.”

“Never happen, luv,” Spike said reassuringly, as he leaned over to kiss Drusilla briefly on the lips, before leaning back and sighing. “Anyway, I’d best be off; got to get the troops in shape for St Vigeous. Should be a party.”

He was just starting to walk away when Drusilla grabbed his arm and yanked him down towards her, planting a brief but passionate kiss on his lips before pulling back to look at him.

“Beware the witches, my knight,” she said, an expression that could almost be called panic on her face as she looked at her lover. “Don’t let them bewitch you like the little halfer has done to my daddy.”

Spike only just managed to stop himself from rolling his eyes at Dru’s comment. He loved her, he really did, but when she made comments about her ‘Daddy’ he always felt like punching something. After all, _he_ was still here; why did she have to keep going on about her beloved sire?

He was just grateful that Angelus wasn’t _literally_ Dru’s father; he had enough on his plate as it was without dealing with her becoming obsessed about something like that…

 _Old habits die hard, I guess_ , he thought ruefully to himself as he walked out of the room, nodding at the vampires at the door who were holding the body he’d captured for Drusilla. _Even after all the people I’ve killed, there’s some lines even_ I’d _rather not cross…_

“Take it in,” he said briefly to the vampires, jerking his head back towards the room before he headed back down the stairs towards the other vampires, ready to prepare them for the attack on the Charmed Ones…

Then a thought occurred to him, and he stopped.

Why _should_ he wait? True, St Vigeous _was_ a good day for a massacre, but given that he’d already killed a few times on Halloween- against _all_ known supernatural tradition- why should he limit himself according to a simple superstition about a certain date?

If he took along that ‘anti-orbing’ amulet the Source had offered him to stop the bitch’s Whitelighter/husband getting in, or the young ‘halfer’ (As Dru called her) getting _out_ , and figured out some way to neutralise the eldest Halliwell sister first- maybe he could find something that would shut down _her_ powers as well…

Plus, it had the added bonus of being totally unexpected; with his comment to Belthazor and the Seer about _Saturday_ night being when he’d strike, the witches would be totally unprepared for him to attack in a few _minutes_ …

Spike chuckled.

 _It’s_ good _to be undead_ … he thought to himself, as he headed down to alert the troops before going back to inform Drusilla about the new change of plans.

He was just grateful that she was in good shape; he’d need all the help he could get to hold out against these new guys. Slayers were tough, but at least they could only hit you with their fists…

* * *

  
“Wait a minute; you _trained_ him?” Paige said, staring at Angel in shock, similar expressions on Piper and Phoebe’s face; if they had bothered to look in Cole’s direction, they would only have seen quiet inspiration, as though the details of something that had been confusing him had finally slotted into place. “Uh… not meaning to sound harsh, but this _was_ pre-soul, right?”

“It was,” Angel said, nodding slightly as he swallowed and looked around them. “He wasn’t my direct student, though; he was the childe of my favoured childe, a female vampire called Drusilla.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard about her,” Cole said, wincing slightly as he looked back at Angel. “Bad piece of work, wasn’t she?”

“She was… an obsession of mine,” Angel said bluntly, as he looked around at the witches. “She was pure and sweet and chaste…”

“And you made her a vampire?” Phoebe said, looking at the vampire bluntly, a vindictive part of her hoping that this exchange would help her sister realise that Angel wasn’t exactly perfect either…

“First I made her insane,” Angel said, as he looked directly at Paige, as though a part of him realised that the woman he… cared for… needed to hear this from his own lips rather than a second-hand source. “Killed everybody she loved. Visited every mental torture on her I could devise.”

Paige looked away slightly at that, but she still remained sitting, determined to hear her boyfriend out, as Piper leant over and squeezed her youngest sister’s shoulder reassuringly, offering her the strength she needed to hear the story her boyfriend had to tell them…

“She eventually fled to a convent,” Angel said, sighing slightly as he came to what seemed to be the most difficult part of his story. “And… on the day she took her holy orders…”

He looked back up at Paige. “I turned her into a demon.”

For a moment, there was silence at the table, as everyone just sat and looked at Angel. Then Paige broke the silence, leaning over to give her boyfriend a brief, but passionate, kiss on the lips. As they parted, Paige placed one hand on Angel’s shoulder, and glared at him.

“It was _Angelus_ who turned her,” she informed the vampire firmly. “Always remember that; it was _Angelus_. You’re not him; you’re you.”

Angel seemed about to say something, but Paige’s hand moved to his mouth as she glared at him.

“Argue with me on that subject again, and I’ll see just how close I can get the stake to your heart without killing you,” she informed him in a casual tone. At that, Angel could only nod briefly, and then Paige released her hand.

“So… uh, what else can you tell us about Spike?” Piper asked, deciding they might as well ignore what happened earlier- after all, forcing Angel on a guilt trip about his past wouldn’t help anything right now- and focus once again on the matter at hand.

Angel shrugged in an attempt at an equally offhand manner. “Beyond what I already told you, not much; he earned his nickname of ‘Spike’ because he traditionally used railroad spikes on his victims as a method of torture. He’s only about a century and a half, but he’s lethal; he and I fought it out more than once in the past, and both times it ended up a draw despite me being the older of the two of us.”

“So, not exactly a pushover, huh?” Phoebe said, sighing as she stared up at the ceiling. “Just once, I’d like to just have to deal with an arrogant upstart who’s got all the intellectual abilities of a dead flea…”

“Well, we can’t waste time wishing, so we’ll just have to do what we can,” Piper sighed, as she glanced around the table at her family, both biologically and unofficially. “We’d better make sure we keep up with the planning; if this ‘St Vigeous’ thing hits the fan tomorrow, we’ll need to be ready to kick vamp butt.”

“I’ll bring the vacuum cleaner,” Cole said casually, before standing up and sighing. “Anyway, I’d better be off; I’ve got a few contacts who might be able to give us something we could use about what Spike’s been up to since Angel last saw him.”

Leaning over, Cole gave Phoebe a brief kiss, and then walked off to a storeroom at the back of the club; his traditional location for shimmering out when he was visiting them at P3.

As the ex-assassin vanished into the crowd of bodies, Paige put an affectionate arm around Angel’s shoulders and indicated the main floor of the club. “Anyway, enough about vampires for the moment,” she said, looking curiously at the vampire, “seeing that we’ve got a it of time before the mass vamp showdown, shall we dance?”

Angel’s expression didn’t change, but his eyes sparkled slightly with gratitude as he took Paige’s hand and lead her onto the dancefloor (Of course, the fact that the song was slower than what had been playing earlier probably played its part as well, Phoebe noted; she’d noted Angel looking nervously at Paige when some of the faster songs had blaring over the speakers, as though he’d rather sunbathe than dance to _those_ songs…).

Looking out as her younger sister danced with the vampire, leaning against his black-clad form as she half-closed her eyes, Phoebe turned to look at Piper, who was watching the couple with a small smile.

“He’s… he’s been good for her, hasn’t he?” Phoebe said, uncertain how she should actually phrase what she wanted to say to her sister.

“Mmm?” Piper said, looking curiously over at her sister before understanding hit. “Oh, Angel? Yeah, I have to agree with you on that front…”

“Even though he’s… y’know… technically dead?” Phoebe asked, testing the waters as she looked at Piper, trying to guage her sister’s reaction to her words; she needed to know whether, hypocritical as it was, she was the only one who was slightly disturbed by Paige’s easy acceptance of Angel’s past. “I mean… it’s not exactly like Leo, is it? I mean, Leo’s still got all the stuff you’d expect… a pulse, that kinda thing… but Angel…”

“What?” Piper said, staring critically at her sister. “Look, just because he’s a bit less… _lively_ … than Leo, doesn’t make him a bad guy. I mean-”

Then there was a loud crash outside the club and, on the dancefloor, Angel and Paige automatically parted at the same time as Piper and Phoebe leapt to their feet, glancing nervously around. As they watched in horror, two vampires (Based on the faces it was either vampires or warlocks, and warlocks didn’t have teeth like that) crashed through the nearby windows into the club, followed by an ever-increasing number of undead from the club’s various other entrance points…

And then, standing at the front door, his arm around a beautiful brunette who evidently suffered from a more-than-slight shortage of marbles, was Spike, chuckling slightly as the three sisters, along with his grandsire, stared at him in horror; in a public place like this, it would be practically _impossible_ to use their magic to defend themselves without attracting attention from the innocents…

“Guess what?” Spike grinned, looking at Piper, his voice easily audible in the silent horror that had fallen over the club. “I couldn’t wait.”

* * *

  
“Damnit…” Angel muttered, as he saw Spike and Drusilla standing at the entrance to the club. He should have _known_ that the one-time poet wouldn’t feel like waiting until St Vigeous itself; he _never_ liked the ceremony aspects of his new vampire nature…

Glancing around at his surroundings, Angel quickly came up with a plan; ducking down behind the bar and out of sight of Spike, Angel glanced over at Paige, who was looking at him enquiringly, and beckoned her over to listen to him.

“Look,” Angel whispered, glancing around to make sure that none of Spike’s forces could see him, “I don’t think either of them noticed me yet; I’ll try and cut around the back. If everything works out, I might be able to distract him long enough for you three to come up with a strategy to stop him before anyone gets hurt. “

“Right…” Paige said, nodding briefly in agreement as she glanced over the bar to look nervously at the new arrivals, before Angel grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back down to face him.

“It’ll be all right, Paige,” he said, looking her directly in the eyes as he spoke. “I won’t let him hurt anyone.”

“I-I know…” Paige said, as she glanced nervously at the surrounding vampires. “It’s just… all these _vampires_ … normally we only have to tackle one demon at a time, and even they only come after _us_ … to attack innocents on this _scale_ …”

Angel sighed slightly in a sympathetic manner, and, leaning over, lightly kissed Paige on the forehead.

“Hold on,” he said, one corner of his mouth turning up slightly in an affectionate smile as he pulled back to look at the beautiful witch who had won his heart. “We’ll sort these guys out; I promise.”

Then he turned around and began to run towards the club’s back staff door, ducking and weaving through the crowd as he tried desperately to stay out of sight of the surrounding vampires. Fortunately, it wasn’t that hard; the lights in the club didn’t focus on the floor, which made it easy for Angel to use his dark clothes as a basic camouflage, and his lack of a heartbeat, coupled with his own stealth abilities, made it nearly impossible for the vampires to spot him unless they somehow already knew he was there…

As Paige looked over the bar, watching as Spike and… Drusilla, she guessed from Angel’s story, walked into the club, grinning wickedly at the various patrons, she could only hope that they’d _somehow_ manage to resolve this problem without exposing their powers and identities as witches…


	11. The Battle of P3

“Aw nuts…” Piper muttered to herself, as she glanced around the club at the numerous vampires that had just entered P3. They’d sealed the door behind them, so at least the chances of having to deal with eager cops wasn’t likely to be an immediate issue, but that still left them with the problem of actually _saving_ everyone in the club…

She wished that she could just blow them all up, but with this amount of witnesses, it was too great a chance that someone would see her flicking her wrists and draw a connection between it and the collapse of the vampires, especially since the vampires would turn into _dust_ as they collapsed.

Angel had given them the benefit of his experience when it came to fighting vampires, and, in most cases when he’d been forced to take on other vampires in public, so long as he’d avoided anyone getting close enough to identify him directly, as well as keeping his face ‘normal’, after he’d left the scene, people mostly just passed off the staking as some weird kind of stunt, practical joke, or something for a trashy live TV show. After all, there was no body, so nobody could be accused of murder, and it was doubtful that _anyone_ would want to admit that they’d seen a man explode into dust, particularly if they didn’t know who’d been specifically involved; nobody wanted to get locked in an asylum, even if they’d seen something so utterly inexplicable.

If they could just stake the vampires without anyone seeing any of the participants- Charmed Ones or vampires- clearly enough to recognise them, they _might_ have had a chance of avoiding too many awkward questions, especially if they drove the vampires out of the club before anyone fully registered that some of the attackers had just… _dissolved_ , for lack of a better term.

But taking them out with _magic_? Up close in a hand-to-hand fight they might do some damage without anyone noticing them; if anyone saw them do _anything_ out of the ordinary, that was their secret out the window; stakes might be forgotten, especially if nobody could clearly see them, but blowing things up with a flick of the hands was something that would _definitely_ inspire questions.

There was no way they’d manage to keep everyone contained in the club before Leo could get here and use that memory dust of his. Even if only one person got out of the club, links would be made, connections drawn, theories created, and even if none of the theories in question were the correct ones, the sisters would be facing some _serious_ trouble that they may not be able to deal with right then…

Then she noticed Angel sneaking towards a back door, and smiled in relief.

At least if _he_ got out of here and managed to sneak around to the club’s main entrance, they might manage to turn the tide a bit.

And talking of people getting out, that gave her an idea that could solve their _other_ problem of witnesses at this time…

“Well, this is a nice little place, isn’t it?” ‘Spike’ said as he walked further into the club, his arm around the woman who Piper could only assume (Based on Angel’s stories) was Drusilla, Spike’s sire and Angel’s childe. “Good music, pleasant atmosphere, and of course…”

He reached out to stroke the cheek of a nearby girl, who flinched away from his touch, but Spike just continued walking as though nothing had happened.

“Good company,” he said, glancing around the floor of the club before his eyes settled on Piper. “Ah, and you’d be the owner of this place, huh?”

“You could say that,” Piper said, glaring back at Spike; no matter how nervous she was at the prospect of having to go into action without her powers, she wasn’t going to give this man the satisfaction of seeing how nervous she was about it. “So, what can I do for you, aside from telling you to get the _hell_ out of my club?”

“Oh, a lot of things, really,” Spike chuckled, as he looked at the witch. “For starters, you could lie down and let me and my friends kill you all, but I get the impression you’re not going to let it be that easy, huh?”

“You’ve got that right,” Piper said, a plan beginning to form in her mind as she studied her surroundings, a plan forming in her mind. It was a long shot, but if she could just get the plan across to Paige without Spike working out what she was doing…

“I mean, what, do you think we’ll just all lie _down_ in a _circle_ and let you pick off _everyone_ in the club one by one?” she asked, walking up to glare at Spike. She knew that this idea was risky, but if Paige could get the innocents in the club to somewhere contained, where they couldn’t get out until Leo got here, the Charmed Ones might be able to stop the attack and still make sure that everyone was safe without exposing their secret; Leo could just use his memory dust to make them forget the whole experience when he showed up. “Sorry, but if you to kill anyone in this club, you’ll have to _go through us_.”

Spike chuckled slightly as he looked at Piper.

“Happy to oblige,” he said, as he released his grip on ‘Drusilla’s’ waist, stepped forward…

“Uh… _Innocents_!” a voice yelled out from off to one side.

And then, to Spike’s shock, baring his vampires and the three Halliwell sisters, every single person in the club turned into a mass of white balls and vanished; it briefly looked like the light had gone down, but he couldn’t be sure.

“What the…?” Spike said, staring around the club in confusion. “But… but my amulet was meant to stop any bloody Whitelighters orbing!”

“Well, that wasn’t _actually_ orbing,” Paige said, looking scathingly at the vampire as she walked forward from where she and Phoebe had been watching their sister’s confrontation with Spike; evidently she’d interpreted Piper’s clues. “It was actually reverse-summoning orbing, my main power; I just orbed them all somewhere out of harm’s way where they’ll be forced to stay until we can safely erase their memories of this incident… once we’ve kicked your asses, naturally.”

“ _You_!” Drusilla cried, stepping forward to glare angrily at Paige. “You’re the one who helped the soul dominate my Daddy!”

“What?” Paige said, staring at Drusilla in momentary confusion, before Phoebe interrupted.

“Uh, can we just get this over with?” she asked, looking briefly in confusion at Drusilla before turning back to looking at the vampires as a whole.

“My thoughts _precisely_ ,” Spike smiled, as he glanced around the club at his vampires. “ _Attack_!”

* * *

  
As soon as he was through the club’s back door, Angel sighed in relief; at least he could relax a bit now that attracting attention was less of a concern.

Pressing up against a nearby wall, the better to blend into the shadows to prevent anyone seeing him, Angel quickly went over his options. Knowing Spike, the vampire had probably stationed a few vampires around the club to prevent anyone getting out; his best bet was probably to stake as many of the other vampires as he could, and then hope that the Source had omitted the little detail about Angel working with the Charmed Ones at the moment…

Then again, that was perfectly possible; given Spike’s tendency to rub his ‘superiors’ up the wrong way, Angel wouldn’t have been surprised if the Source had neglected to give Spike all the information he’d need in dealing with the Charmed Ones just to increase the odds of the vampire ending up dead.

Glancing around, Angel smiled in relief as he saw a broken tray Piper had discarded earlier lying in the trash. It wasn’t as effective as a wooden stake, of course, but if he broke the tray into a sharp enough piece and pushed it into the heart far enough, he might be able to take out at least a couple of vampires before it broke.

His makeshift weapon clutched in his hand, Angel slowly edged towards the corner of the club and glanced around, smiling slightly as he saw two vampires standing by the door to the club storerooms. He was just grateful that the back door had been designed to not be that obvious; he might have had a bit of trouble getting out if he’d been forced to take out two vampires on a moment’s notice without a single weapon.

 _Of all the nights to be_ without _my stakes_ … Angel sighed, as he turned around the corner and sneaked slowly towards the vampires; the two of them were too busy having a conversation to notice him, evidently assuming that they’d notice anyone who came their way. He’d just have to strike fast and hope that he could take one of them out now; unarmed, he’d have a better chance against just one vampire at a time than he would against two of them, particularly if they were as young as they seemed to be.

“I dunno, really,” one vampire said to the other, as Angel took extra care to stay quiet. “I mean, Spike’s got a rep and all, but given what I’ve heard about the youngest Charmed One…”

“What?” the other vampire asked, glaring critically at his associate. “That she’s been trained by one of us? You’ve _got_ to get over it; there’s no _way_ that’s true!”

“But what the others have been saying…” the vampire said, looking slightly nervous from what Angel could see of his stance, “I mean, she took out _Darla_ …”

“ _That_ was a fluke; Darla got distracted by the other sisters,” the second vampire growled. “They are _not_ good enough to stop all of us!”

It might have been melodramatic and over-the-top, but Angel decided that now was the time to act.

Standing up, he grabbed the vampire who’d just spoken, placed his makeshift weapons as his foe’s neck, and, before the other vampire could do anything, Angel had drawn the sharp shards that used to be a tray rapidly across the vampire’s neck, severing the man’s vocal chords and leaving him bleeding profusely. Normally, this would only have slowed a vampire down rather than kill him outright- the lack of a pulse made it difficult for a vampire to _bleed_ to death, after all- but, as soon as the vampire had fallen to his knees, Angel grabbed his foe’s head and rapidly twisted it; with the vampire’s neck in an already fragile condition, it was a simple matter for Angel to practically twist the vampire’s head around to face the other direction for that brief moment before the body turned to dust.

“What…?” the other vampire began, staring at Angel in confusion for a moment before shifting into his vampire face and lunging for his opponent, drawing a pair of daggers from beneath his coat. Perhaps he thought that Angel was just a human who had managed to get in a single lucky shot. However, he soon learned that his assessment had been incorrect; as he launched forward with one of the daggers, the ex-Scourge of Europe ducked to one side, hit the vampire in the throat with a powerful karate chop, and, as the vampire staggered back, gasping faintly, Angel lunged forward and bit his foe’s neck.

It may have been dead, but even the vampire’s blood was a welcome ‘gift’ for his body, a welcome substitute to the pig’s blood Angel forced himself to subsist on…

As the vampire collapsed to the ground, Angel grabbed its falling daggers and smiled. At least _now_ he was properly armed…

Then he heard the sound of a struggle inside the club, and he just hoped that he could get inside before anything happened to the Charmed Ones.

* * *

  
As the vampires shifted into their demonic faces and lunged towards the three of them, each Charmed One reacted in their own way; Piper quickly flicked her hands to destroy the first approaching vampire, Phoebe leapt into the air and spun around rapidly, one leg outstretched to kick the attacking vampires back, and Paige just grabbed the arm of one as he lunged forward and swung him into his friend, sending them both hurtling to the ground. Taking advantage of the brief lull in the fight, Paige grabbed a piece of wood from a nearby broken table, quickly made sure it was sharp enough, and then began to use it; two vampires had soon been staked by it and more were already following them.

* * *

  
“ _Get the eldest_!” Spike yelled, glaring at the witch in question; he had already marked her down as the most dangerous. As he spoke, Piper turned to face him, hands ready to attack, and he only narrowly ducked to one side before she could flick her hands; as it was, all that was damaged was the chair behind where Spike had been standing.

As she scanned her surroundings for the bleach-haired vampire, Piper vaguely sensed something coming towards her from off to one side, but, using the reflexes that had been honed over the demon-hunting of the last three years, she ducked rapidly to one side, watching with a small smile as Drusilla hurtled past her, nails outstretched in a manner that would have caught Piper in the neck if she hadn’t moved when she did.

“ _Phoebe_!” Piper called over to her sister, as Drusilla continued to hurtle onwards, now heading for the seer-sister; then again, given Drusilla’s own ability to have visions, Piper wouldn’t be surprised if Drusilla had been aiming for Phoebe all along to ‘eliminate the competition’.

* * *

  
Glancing back, Phoebe noticed the charging vampire, and, leaping up into the air, she came down rapidly once again, her high-heeled shoes digging into Drusilla’s back as the witch came back down. Drusilla screamed and dived forward, escaping the immediate worst of Phoebe’s attack, but the heels of Phoebe’s shoes still left a significant scratch along Drusilla’s back, and her dress was torn.

“ _Sister_!” Drusilla screamed, sounding almost hurt as she turned to look at Phoebe. “Why would you _hurt_ me like that? I’m like _you_!”

“Uh… no, you’re not,” Phoebe retorted, trying not to show how unnerved she was by Drusilla’s presence; at least the demons she normally tackled were pretty much sane, even if they were evil through and through. “For one thing, you’re around two hundred years old, for another, you’re technically dead, and thirdly, you’re nuts; the only thing we have in common is the visions, and I’m not really sure that counts enough for you to merit calling me ‘sister’.”

“Oh, but you’re wrong, little sister,” Drusilla replied, suddenly significantly calmer than when she’d charged at Phoebe. Indeed, the vampire almost seemed hurt, as though she was a little girl who’d been denied a long-awaited treat by her family, and was now trying to convince them to change her mind. “We’re more alike than even you know… more than anyone could have suspected…”She reached out to Phoebe with both hands, as though about to pull the witch into a hug for some reason, but Phoebe, already becoming creeped-out by Drusilla, decided she’d had enough; drawing back one fist, she launched a rapid punch at her foe’s face.

As Drusilla staggered back, her face automatically shifting into the vampire appearance that Phoebe knew well from having seen Angel and Darla transform during the fight in P3 all those weeks ago, Phoebe quickly jumped into the air and flew backwards several feet, before landing some distance away from her earlier opponent.

 _If I’m going up against a vampire_ that _nuts_ , Phoebe thought to herself, as she quickly launched a powerful kick at an approaching minion, _I’d prefer to have some kind of weapon to help me do it_.

* * *

  
Glancing around the corner, Angel sighed as he saw two vampires standing at the main entrance; fortunately, the street P3 was on was otherwise fairly quiet, which left him with several options for taking these guys out. Of course, he could tackle them in a fair fight, but given his present ignorance as to how the situation was for the Charmed Ones inside the club, he decided to go for the easier option. Raising the daggers he held in his hands, he hurled one at the nearer vampire, smiling as it struck the target in the heart. As the other vampire spun around at the sound of his comrade collapsing, Angel hurled the second dagger, striking his target in the chest at such a speed that even Angel’s heightened reflexes would have had trouble catching it.

As the daggers hit the ground, Angel was already running towards them, ducking and rolling to grab the daggers once more before he leapt back to his feet. Glancing at the door, he quickly went over his options. The last time he’d encountered Spike had been during that affair with the submarine in the Second World War (Angel still wished that had gone better; he constantly regretted having to sire Sam Lawson, even if it had been to rescue the rest of the crew), but Spike was a notoriously spur-of-the-moment vampire; he never had much patience.

Besides, in all his meetings with Spike since getting his soul, he’d never actually _done_ anything that would suggest he wasn’t quite the Angelus Spike knew. After all, after the curse had been cast, Angel had tried to ignore his conscience and find a balance by feeding on criminals instead of killing at random, and on the sub he’d taken care to act like he was only keeping the crew alive out of self-interest…

Maybe, if he could just bluff it for the first few moments, he’d manage to get in close enough to Spike to take the guy out before he fully realised what was going on. Drusilla would still be a problem, true, but if he could neutralise her lover, she might be prepared to listen to ‘reason’ and leave…

 _Well, it’s as good a plan as any_ , Angel told himself.

Walking over to the door, slipping the daggers into his pockets as he did so, Angel kicked it open, hoping Piper would be content to take the money for that lock out of his pay for the night, and smiled in relief as he saw Spike standing near the door; the man _never_ liked to get his hands dirty.

At the sound of the crash, Spike turned around to look in the direction of the door, and his eyes widened. Glancing around, Angel noticed that Piper, Phoebe and Paige were still occupied with fighting the vampires, some distance away from him and Spike, and smiled in relief. The Charmed Ones were good, but they still weren’t, strictly speaking, _warriors_. They may not immediately realise what he was trying to do, and that fact could have blown his cover; they might have either not realised what he was trying to do and think he'd betrayed them, or they might have assumed that he _wouldn't_ go evil again on his own and given away that he was lying.

“Angelus!” Spike smiled over at his sire.

“Spike!” Angel grinned back at his grandchilde. He briefly wished there was still a human or two around here- it would have been risky, but he could have used the human as an ‘offering’ of good faith- but he’d just have to make do with what he had on offer.

“I'll be damned!” Spike smiled, as he walked over and gave his sire a hug, the two of them laughing slightly as they did so.

Pulling back, Angel glared at Spike in a mockingly scolding manner. “I taught you to always guard your perimeter,” he said, tutting disapprovingly as he stared at his grandchild. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. You should have someone out there,” he added, indicating the entrance.

“I did,” Spike said, looking puzzled for a moment before shrugged. “Well, I'm surrounded by idiots. What's new with you?”

“Everything,” Angel said simply.

 _That_ was true enough, at least…“Come up against these witches yet?” Spike asked, indicating the fighting behind them. Glancing in the direction Spike indicated, Angel was relieved to note that all three Charmed Ones seemed to be coping well enough; no sign of Cole or Leo yet, but Angel had only expected that Spike would have some way of holding them back.

“Cute, but not too bright,” Angel said, shrugging nonchalantly; best to stick to the obvious option of just appearing to be a murderous killer biding his time for the moment, he felt. “Gave the puppy dog 'I'm all tortured' act.” Deciding it would add to the effect, he chuckled slightly. “Keeps them off my back when I feed!”

“People _still_ fall for that Anne Rice routine?” Spike asked, glaring incredulously at Angel before letting out a brief laugh himself. “What a world!”

Then, as though a thought had just occurred to him, he stopped and looked curiously at Angel. “I haven't seen you in the killing fields for an age.”

“I'm not much for company,” Angel replied simply; there was no time to come up with something more elaborate right now.

“No, you never were,” Spike said, pausing for a moment before continuing. “So, why're you so scared of these witches?”

“Scared?” Angel said, staring at Spike in a hostile manner; he had to appear like an insulted monster rather the man he was trying to become.

“Yeah. Time was you would've taken them out in a heartbeat; _Now_ look at you,” he added, indicating Angel. “I bet this, uh, tortured thing is an act, right?” he continued, looking at Angel with a combination of disbelief, uncertainty, and fear. “You're not... housebroken?”

Rolling his eyes, Angel glared back at Spike. “These three took out Darla, and I’ve seen them eliminate some of the deadliest demons of this age,” he said, only slightly surprised when Spike didn’t seem that shocked at the news of Darla’s death; evidently news travelled the underworld faster than he’d expected. “Hey, you think you can take them alone? Be my guest.”

Shrugging dismissively, he turned to walk out of the club. “I'll just go now, I guess.”

“Hey, don't be silly!” Spike said, reaching over to place a hand on Angel’s shoulder. “We're all friends. We'll do it together…”

Angel’s guard relaxed slightly, at this sight of his plan apparently working…

And at that moment Spike punched Angel in the face, making him stagger back, clutching a suddenly-bloody nose.

“You think you can fool _me_?” Spike asked, staring angrily at Angel as he shifted into his vamp face. “You were my sire, man! You were my... _Yoda_!”

Despite himself, Angel rolled his eyes; over a hundred years of life, and the best fictional mentor Spike could come up with was _Yoda_? What happened to all the other classics?

“Things change,” he said simply as he stared back at Spike, shifting into his own vamp face, smiling in relief as the pain in his nose vanished; the transformation had healed the bones.

“ _Not us_!” Spike roared. “Not demons! Man, I can't believe this. You Uncle Tom!”

Roaring, Spike lunged towards Angel, but the other vampire was unconcerned; he just reached into his pockets, pulled out his daggers, and slashed at Spike as the vampire charged towards him. The vampire screamed in rage and pain as the daggers slashed above his eyes, momentarily blinding him as blood streamed from his forehead into his eyes, and Angel took advantage of this fact to kick him towards the nearest witch.

“ _Piper_!” he yelled. “Get him!”

Spinning around, Piper flicked her hands towards Spike. The vampire desperately flipped out of the witch’s path, but even his heightened reflexes had their limits; he didn’t blow up, but there was a definite explosion of some kind on his back as he leapt for safety. Screaming in agony, Spike fell towards the ground, landing painfully on his back, as a black amulet with a dark green gem fell from his neck, shattering as it hit the ground.

“NO!” a voice called out from off to one side. “SPIKE!”

Glancing in the direction of the voice, Angel was only mildly surprised to see Drusilla turn away from Phoebe (Who, to her credit, appeared to have done a significant amount of damage in their fight), run towards Spike, scoop his fallen body up in her arms, and run towards the doors. As she reached them, she paused and turned back to look at the vampires and the witches, all of whom had briefly paused in their struggle to look at this sight before them.

“You hurt my knight!” Drusilla screamed at them, her vampire fangs gleaming fiercely in the moonlight as she glared at them. “But he is as the Green Knight; he shall recover, and you shall all pay!”

Then she turned and ran, Spike letting out short yells of pain as her legs struck his injured back.

As she vanished, Angel and the Charmed Ones turned back to look at the collection of vampires before them, now reduced to about half their original number, thanks to Piper’s explosions and Paige’s fancy work with stakes.

Smiling slightly, Angel spun the daggers he held in his hands, and glanced over at Piper.

“Shall we?” he asked.

Piper nodded. “We shall,” she said simply.

Instantly, the four of them launched into action, slashing, punching and exploding the various vampires that appeared in front of them. Out of the corner of his eyes, Angel noticed two other figures attacking the vampires, and smiled in relief; it looked like Cole and Leo were available once more. In a matter of moments, as the Charmed Ones and their… lovers… struck out at the mass of vampires around them, the attackers had vanished into dust, apparently demoralised at the sight of their leaders running away.

Looking around at the scene of the combat, Angel smiled as he tossed his daggers aside and glanced around at his ‘friends’.

“Well, that seemed to turn out OK,” he said, smiling slightly at them all. “Good work, everyone.”

Cole smiled back at the vampire as he briefly stretched.

“Well, we had to go up against vampires _en masse_ eventually; better it was now rather than later,” he said nonchalantly. “Glad to see I haven’t lost my touch with the energy balls.”

“What happened here, anyway?” Leo asked, glancing over enquiringly at the sisters.

“An old friend of mine from the days before I was cursed tried to kill us,” Angel explained.

“Ah,” Leo said, sighing slightly as he looked around at their surroundings. “Well, at least that’s him finished.”

“No,” Piper interrupted, drawing attention back to her from the vampire. “Trust me, he’s not dead; he and Drusilla bailed out after I hit his back.”

Glancing over at the door where the two vampires had fled, she sighed slightly. “And since they got out… they’re still alive.”

As the three witches, the Whitelighter, the demon and the vampire looked at each other, standing in that silent club in the brief moments before they had to call back the Innocents and erase their memories of the entire incident, the same thought ran through all six minds.

 _When will they be back_?


	12. Deaths in a Coven

Any hopes Angel had entertained about the Underworld deciding to calm down after losing a significant number of demons to a single attack swiftly proved to be wrong. Barely a week after the Battle of P3 (As Angel was already thinking of his latest confrontation with Drusilla and Spike), there was a demon hunting various witches once again, and the Charmed Ones were forced to devote most of their time to tracking down what was behind it.

Fortunately, Phoebe’s current lack of work meant that she was constantly available on a regular basis to search for information about the demon. However, since Paige _had_ to work, and Piper needed to be available in case they found something that had to be acted on at once (Her powers _were_ the most useful in a fight, after all), that meant that Angel was forced to help out in the running of P3 to give Piper more time to search for the Book of Shadows. He didn’t mind too much about the role he’d been allocated, though; after all, he freely admitted that magic-using demons weren’t his forte. He was trying to keep in touch with a few of his old contacts, hopefully figure out if he could find anything _that_ way, but so far none of them had anything to give him.

Therefore, when Angel sat down during one of his rare breaks as P3’s latest bartender- not the most glamorous job he’d ever had in his life, but he was glad at the chance to help the Halliwells in a manner that didn’t relate to fighting demons, and he was actually remarkably good at it- he was pleasantly surprised to see Paige walking over to join him. Even if she had a dejected expression about her at the moment, her beautiful face somehow helped make him feel _significantly_ better.

“Hey,” she said, as she pulled up a chair and sat down beside him at the table. “How’s things?”

“At the bar, or among my… less savoury associates?” Angel asked. Ever since his true identity had been revealed to the sisters, he’d become their regular contact among the less mystic demons of the world for information. In the event of a serious demon-related problem, he and Cole typically covered a two-pronged investigation; Cole tackled the Underworld, checking up with some of his old protégés, while Angel browsed the demon bars in the area to try and find information.

“Well, I’d like to say I wanted to know about the bar, but based on what I can see, you’re coping with it pretty well, so I don’t think it’s a problem,” Paige said, glancing around at their surroundings before looking back at Angel. “How do you keep up with all these people? I’ve been helping out for _months_ after work and I _still_ can’t cope with all the orders we get sometimes…”

Angel shrugged. “I spent a lot of time in bars when I was alive,” he said dismissively. “I learned to anticipate what my associates would want; it made it easier for me to get back to… business.”

Paige was about to ask what that meant, but something in Angel’s expression told her he wasn’t going to answer, so she shrugged it off. If nothing else, he’d assured her that all of ‘his’ real crimes- such as murder and rape- had only taken place _after_ he became a vampire, so she doubted Angel could have done anything too serious back when he was human.

“Getting back to your first question, I wouldn’t mind knowing if you found anything helpful from your… associates,” she said, looking curiously at Angel. “Any luck identifying our latest witch-killer?”

“No,” Angel replied, shaking his head slightly, frustration barely visible in his eyes; only Paige, who knew him so well, would even have known it was there. “Nothing; those who knew about the demon only even heard about him from information about his victims; I’ve got nothing about who’s actually _behind_ this…”

Paige sighed in frustration. “Same here, really,” she said, as she looked over at her boyfriend, before smiling slightly. “In other news, however, I’m trying to figure out ways to help Piper get over her fears about having a baby.”

Angel blinked in surprise; _that_ had been unexpected…

“Get _over_ her fears?” he asked, looking at Paige in surprise. “Why do you say that? The last time I checked, I thought _she_ was the one who was trying to _convince_ Leo.”

“Well, she’s been a bit on-edge ever since that whole incident with the Source abducting her and trying to convince her she was just nuts,” Paige explained, looking over at Angel as she spoke. “I mean, I’m pretty sure she _wants_ to have a kid with Leo, but at the same time she’s… y’know, a bit worried about whether our lives will let us _care_ for it…”

Sighing, she looked back at Angel with a raised eyebrow. “Still, I can’t say I blame her; I mean, I get her argument, even if I don’t quite _agree_ with it. I’ve been thinking about getting her one of those false baby-doll things- you know, something to show her she _can_ cope with it- but, well, we’ve got so much _real_ stuff going on in our lives at the moment that I just don’t see the point in bringing a ‘fake kid’ into our lives just to make a point about how she’d cope as a parent.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Angel said simply. Noting Paige’s confused expression, he nearly felt like kicking himself for mentioning something like _that_ at a time like this, but gritted his teeth (Metaphorically, at least; he’d never been able to _actually_ do that without feeling like he’d damaged a molar) and resolved to keep going regardless.

If nothing else, she deserved to know the full details about what a relationship with _him_ on a long-term basis would involve.

“I mean,” he said, already wondering if he should have mentioned this _before_ Paige agreed to a relationship with him, “it… wouldn’t exactly make a difference to me whether I thought I’d be a good parent or not. I don't... Well, you know… I… I can't…”

Paige blinked in surprise at that. On reflection, she supposed it only made sense- after all, Angel _was_ technically dead- but still…

“Oh,” she said, simply, before shrugging in an offhand attempt at being casual. “Well, no biggie; I mean, I always figured there were things that vampires _couldn’t_ do. You know, like sunbathing, working at the Red Cross, helping out in a church, having… little vampires…”

The conversation trailed off there for a moment, both Paige and Angel more than slightly uncomfortable at what to say next, before Paige’s phone rang and broke the awkward silence that had settled over the table.

“Yeah?” Paige asked, pulling the phone out of her pocket and accepting the call.

“ _Paige, it’s Phoebe_ ,” the voice said at the other end of the line. “ _Sorry to bother you, but there’s been another murder; Leo just told us about it. Piper and I called Darryl about it and we’re heading off to meet him at the crime scene; any chance you could come along and join us? Cole would have come, but there’s a good chance they’ll be people who recognise Cole from when he was a district attorney._ ”

“Oh; sure thing,” Paige said, as she glanced over enquiringly at Angel, turning her attention back to the phone when he nodded. A part of her wanted to make some kind of joke about Cole being a demon _and_ a lawyer, but she shook it off; she knew Angel understood _why_ she disliked Cole, but he still disliked having her feelings about the former Triad assassin rubbed in his face. “Angel’s here, actually; OK if he comes too?”

“ _Uh… sure_ ,” Phoebe said. Paige noted, with some annoyance, that her sister still seemed slightly reluctant to accept her vampire boyfriend; she just could _not_ understand why Phoebe had such a problem with _Angel_ and yet could be perfectly accepting of _Cole_.

OK, they were both demons with souls, but, the way Paige saw it, Angel had only acquired his soul _after_ he’d been the bad guy; he wasn’t the same person who’d committed the crimes that had earned him the name ‘the Scourge of Europe’. Cole, on the other hand, had committed murder after murder for nearly a century, and _he’d_ had a soul for all that time…

“We’ll be there,” Paige said simply, as she terminated the call and glanced over at Angel. “That was Phoebe; Darryl called her and Piper about another murder, and they want me to come along with them. Care to help out?”

For a moment it looked as though Angel would decline, as he looked at the bar around him with an almost wistful expression, like a man unwilling to leave a duty he had been given, but eventually he nodded and looked back at her.

“Let’s go,” he said, as he slipped off the stool. “I’ll just let my replacement know he’ll need to be on a bit earlier than he’d expected, and I’ll be right with you.”

* * *

  
As Darryl stood in front of the alley where the latest body had been found, glancing at his watch as he hoped that the Halliwells would show up _before_ the forensics teams. He’d managed to delay them for a time- claimed that he’d wanted to take a look at the crime scene before anyone else got at it, making it clear that he’d stay away from anywhere that might provide evidence as to who did it, but he still wished they’d arrive.

“Hey, Darryl,” a voice said from behind him. Glancing back, Darryl was relieved to see Piper, Phoebe and Paige standing behind him, but the smile was replaced by a look of confusion as he registered the man standing beside Paige, dressed all in black and with a pale face that suggested he hadn’t seen the sun for a while. Still, he seemed to be standing fairly close to Paige, so Darryl assumed he was trustworthy; after all, in all fairness to Paige, she was the least open-minded sister when it came to dealing with demons, so she would hardly be that close to someone whose intentions were in doubt.

Making up his mind, Darryl nodded politely at the sisters, and then walked over to the man and held out his hand.

“Darryl Morris,” he said, by way of introduction.

“Angel,” the man replied, as he took Darryl’s hand and shook it. A part of Darryl wondered why Angel’s hand was so cold, but dismissed it as nothing; the man might just be that way. “I’m Paige’s boyfriend.”

Darryl blinked briefly in surprise at that- _none_ of the sisters had mentioned that Paige had started dating someone- but, given the limited time available to them, he was forced to put his curiosity aside and turn back to the matter at hand.

“OK, I can’t give you much time, so be quick,” he said, indicating the alley behind him, where the forensics team were already taking photographs of the crime scene. “What we’ve got is pretty basic; man called 911 from the payphone over there, and reported he’d found a body.”

Angel nodded briefly as he studied the payphone, before his eyes fell on the scorch marks on the opposite wall.

“Looks like he took out somebody else,” he said, indicating the scorch marks as he glanced over at Phoebe and Piper; Paige was still standing beside him. “If he’s stuck with the anathema for his witch victims so far, he wouldn’t use energy balls on them.”

“So… what? Somebody just wandered in at the wrong time?” Piper asked, looking at Angel.

“Looks like,” Paige said, shrugging casually as she studied the burns. “Too bad Cole isn’t here; he might be able to tell us what it is-”

“Was anything noteworthy found on the victim?” Angel interjected before Paige could finish her sentence. A part of him was fairly sure Paige was about to start making further reference to Cole’s past, and while he respected his friend’s desire for redemption, he _still_ didn’t like hearing Cole’s past as Belthazor discussed.

It was just… too close to home for him, really. Cole was trying to make for it, he knew, but discussing Cole’s past crimes as Belthazor reminded Angel all too keenly of his behaviour in the early days after he’d been given back his soul, when he’d still tried to stay with Darla regardless of his newfound conscience…

“Just this,” Darryl said, pulling a necklace out of his pocket and passing it to Paige, who glanced briefly at it and nodded.

“It’s the triple crescent; it’s an ancient Wiccan symbol, kind of a cousin to the triquetra,” she explained as she looked briefly at the necklace before passing it back to Darryl.

“The mark of a coven?” Piper suggested.

“Maybe…” Phoebe said, as she reached out to take the necklace from Darryl, only for her entire body to suddenly tense up and her eyes close- in other words, Angel recognised, all the signs of her receiving a new vision about an innocent in danger.

“Phoebe?” Darryl said, looking at his friend anxiously as Phoebe’s eyes opened once more.

“Demon,” she said, looking back at her sisters. “He’s attacking some woman by the steps in some park; I think it was, like, in an old amphitheatre or something.”

“Did you get what it looked like?” Angel asked, looking over from where he’d been examining the scorch marks.

“Uh… Belthazor-like,” Phoebe said. Noting the uncertain expression on Paige’s face, she added, “ _Kind_ of like him. Not exactly, just… similar.”

“Well, if this woman was the member of a coven, we should probably start by finding if there’s anyone still left from the coven,” Piper said, glancing over at Darryl. “Do we know any of her friends?”

“Over there,” Darryl said, indicating a woman who was talking to a man in a business suit. “He’s an ADA; been trying to find out if the victim had any enemies we should know about.”

“Ah,” Piper said, nodding as she looked at the woman before glancing back at her sisters. “Think she’s another member of the coven?”

“Only one way to find out,” Phoebe said, shrugging casually as she walked over to talk to the girl; she noticed the man give the woman a card and then walk away, but the man’s low voice meant that she didn’t manage to hear what he was saying to her.“Hi,” she said, smiling brightly at the young woman, as she turned to look curiously at the new arrival. “I like your necklace; really suits you”.

“Thanks…” the woman said, looking in confusion at Phoebe, as though she felt she should recognise the young woman. “Look… I’m sorry if I sound rude, but do I know you?”

“Not exactly, but you might know _of_ me,” Phoebe explained, smiling reassuringly at the young woman, before leaning over to whisper in her ear. “My sisters and I? We’re the _Charmed Ones_.”

The woman’s eyes widened as Phoebe pulled back to look at her, a small smile on her face.

“Sorry to shock you like that, but we’ve got a problem that we’re trying to crack,” Phoebe explained as she looked at the woman, who couldn’t have been more shocked if Phoebe had been Julia Roberts or Jennifer Anniston at that moment. “You and… Carrie were in the same coven, right?”

“Y… Yes,” the woman said, nodding in a daze.

“And your mark is the triple crescent?” Phoebe asked, indicating the necklace. The woman nodded, slightly shaken as she stared at the other witch, apparently unable to believe that she was talking to one of the most powerful witches who’d ever been. “Look, we’re sorry to be blunt, but we think you might be danger and I have to know; do you know of an old amphitheatre in a park of some kind?”

“Yes…” the woman said, nodding thoughtfully as she looked at Phoebe. “There’s one in Stanley Arboreta; I walk past it every day on the way to work.”

“Right,” Phoebe said, nodding resolutely as she looked at the woman before her. “With that in mind, it’ll probably be in the _morning_ when what I saw happens…”

“What the hell is going on here?” a voice said from off to one side. Spinning around, Phoebe found herself looking at the man who’d been addressing the woman earlier, a more-than-slightly annoyed expression on his face.

“This is a _murder_ investigation!” he yelled, as he glared angrily over at Piper, Paige and Angel, who were looking anxiously over at Phoebe as though to make sure she’d found out what they needed to know. “Who are these people?”

Out of the man’s field of vision, the woman nodded slightly, and the others relaxed; they’d found out what they needed to know.

“I'll get rid of them,” Darryl put in, walking over to glare critically at the four witches and the vampire; only an apologetic gleam in his eyes showed that he was sorry about what he had to do right now. “Come on, ladies, move along. _First_ time I ask nicely…”

“Don’t worry; we're going,” Angel said, glaring slightly at Darryl as he spoke before turning around and walking away.

“I don’t know,” the vampire continued, just loud enough for the other man to hear him, as the five of them began to walk away, “you try and make a _difference_ in this city, and all the thanks you get as a result is the bloody cops saying you’re getting in the way of their precious investigation…”

* * *

  
Some hours later, the sun shining brightly over the city of San Francisco, only an hour or so away from noon, Angel found himself sitting in his new apartment, casually studying his surroundings. Following the sisters’ discovery of his true nature, coupled with him taking the job at P3, he’d managed to pull together the money to get a slightly better apartment; for one thing, this one was actually for _rent_ , rather than just being considered unsafe for typical human habitation.

The only item of furniture he retained from the previous apartment was the portable fridge that he used for keeping his blood bags cool; the bed was new and more comfortable, and, with some help from Leo and Piper, he’d acquired a couple of leather chairs. Angel had also managed to set up a kitchen fitted with a few basics in case any of the sisters came by- it was mostly just snacks and sandwiches, but he mainly kept them to attract less questions if any of the other residents should pay him a visit for some reason.

With the sisters currently otherwise occupied with tracking the demon that was after their innocent, and Leo and Cole off doing whatever a whitelighter and a former demon assassin on the run did in their free time, Angel had closed the curtains of his apartment to block out the sunshine, and was occupying himself with something that had long been of interest to him; sketching.

Specifically, sketching Paige, although he included the rest of the Halliwell family in the pictures as well.

He was never entirely sure _when_ he’d acquired an interest in it, to be honest. He’d been fairly talented back when he’d been alive, but given his generally lax attitude towards life back then, he hadn’t cared enough to pursue it particularly far. The closest he’d ever come to actually _doing_ something about it was when he did a picture for his sister, and he could barely even recall what had become of it in the end.

Then, of course, he’d lost his soul and become Angelus, and the drawings had become a particular favourite torment of his; once he’d made his victims aware of his presence- commonly vampire hunters or witches- he’d enjoyed sneaking into their houses at night to draw some pictures of them sleeping. Angelus had regarded it as the perfect psychological torture; they’d know he’d been there and _hadn’t_ killed them, leaving them to conclude that he almost didn’t _really_ regard them as a serious threat.

After regaining his soul, he, naturally, had never been in the mood for giving the drawing thing another chance; he’d had too many issues to deal with to worry about relaxing and doing something he actually _liked_ doing. If nothing else, there had been that part of his mind screaming at him that he didn’t deserve to be content, that he didn’t deserve to be relaxed, that he should do nothing but blame himself for all the terrible things he’d done because he’d been too weak to say no to a beautiful woman…

But now… it was different.

He didn’t have to hide away and punish himself any more; he was actually _trying_ to make an _impact_ on the world

He had been _accepted_ into a group of people who knew what he was- _who_ he was- and regarded him as a friend and ally regardless of his past crimes.

True, Phoebe and Leo were still a bit uncertain about him, but the way he saw it, he should be grateful _any_ of them were willing to be friendly to him after what he’d done in the past…

And, with things finally going well in his undead life, Angel felt as though he could let himself enjoy some of the more simple pleasures, such as drawing.

“Busy?” a voice said from behind him. Startled, Angel leapt up from the seat he’d been reclining in, only to see Cole standing behind his chair, a small smile on his face as he looked at the vampire.

“What are you doing here?” Angel asked, trying to keep his tone civil; as surprised as he was to see Cole here, it wasn’t exactly an unwelcome visit from his new friend.

Cole shrugged. “No point going on the run from the underworld twenty-four/seven; I figured that it couldn’t hurt to take a little break to check in on a friend,” he said casually, as he picked up one of Angel’s sketches and studied it appreciatively. It was a simple pencil sketch of Paige, detailing her the way she’d been when Angel had first seen her all those months ago, standing outside the social work office, her hair flying back slightly as she turned to talk to her friend…

“Nice,” he said, looking back at Angel with an approving smile. “You’ve been holding back on us; I didn’t even know _you_ had an artistic side like this.”

“Aside from the varied methods of murder, you mean?” Angel retorted bluntly, as he took the sketch away from Cole and began to gather up the other drawings; unintentionally or not, Cole had made a point that struck a little too close to him for his taste.

“Hey, I didn’t mean it like _that_!” Cole said, looking apologetically at Angel as the vampire turned away from him. “You _know_ I didn’t mean anything by it… we all just tend to think of you more as… well, _you_ … I guess…”

For a moment, Angel felt like staying silent, but, eventually, he just sighed and turned back to look at Cole.

“I… I know that,” he said, as he looked back at Cole, an expression of equal regret on his face. “I _know_ that you didn’t _mean_ to make some kind of reference to Angelus, Cole… and I _know_ you all see me as a friend. It’s just…”

He paused for a moment, as though trying to find the right words, and then sighed. “Well, it’s hard, I guess.”

Cole nodded sympathetically as he placed a hand on Angel’s shoulder.

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” he said, as he looked at his friend for a moment, lost in thought, before he began to speak again. “You know, I sometimes envy you; at least _you_ don’t have to deal with the knowledge that _you_ did all that stuff…”

“Envy _me_?” Angel said, looking up at Cole sharply. He wasn’t going to contradict Cole’s main point, of course- on a conscious level, he knew that he _wasn’t_ Angelus, even if it still felt the like line between them was thinner than he would have liked it- but he still couldn’t believe that Cole found anything for _him_ to be envious about. “Cole, I’ve got a hundred and fifty _years_ worth of memories of committing all _kinds_ of murders; you’ve only got… eighty years or so, if you take the training into account… and all of _your_ victims at least had _some_ idea of how to fight back. Me…”

He sighed sadly as he stared at his right hand for a moment, flexing the fingers as though he was remembering the feel of breaking a neck with that hand. “I only ever targeted the innocent…”

“But it wasn’t _you_ ,” Cole retorted, shaking Angel’s shoulder slightly as he glared at the vampire. “You need to remember that; _you_ are _not_ Angelus.”

Angel was about to reply to that, when Paige suddenly orbed into the middle of the apartment; Angel quickly stuck the hand holding his sketches behind his back as he and Cole turned to look in her direction.

“Did something go wrong?” Angel asked, noting Paige’s anxious expression as she looked at the two former killers.

“You _could_ say that,” Paige said, shooting a curious glance at the edge of the papers in Angel’s hand but evidently deciding not to ask any more questions about them. “We stopped our demon killing the innocent, but we’ve got a new factor; some witch called Emma’s after this guy because he killed her fiancé.”

“And having _another_ witch after this guy is a problem because…?” Cole asked, waving one hand in a prompting manner.

“For one thing, she isn’t a witch; she’s basing her attack plan on a bunch of stuff her fiancé left her,” Paige explained, looking critically at Cole before looking back at Angel. “Anyway, Piper figured it’d probably be a good idea to have you guys stay at the Manor with us; if this guy attacks, we could use all the back-up we could get.”

“Fair enough,” Cole said, nodding in agreement; Angel took advantage of the momentary distraction to slip the sketches down the back of his chair before Paige turned her attention back to him.

“So, shall we go?” Angel said, looking inquiringly at Paige.

Paige nodded, and, reaching out, took Angel’s hand, closed her eyes, and orbed back to the Manor, Cole shimmering after them a few seconds later.


	13. Showdown with Sykes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To clarify, if I don’t write about events that took place in ‘Black as Cole’ in this chapter, that’s because they’ve remained pretty much the same as they were in the original timeline; the _exact_ words might have been a little different, but otherwise everything worked out as it did in the original episode

An hour later, as he sat in the lounge of Halliwell Manor, staring idly up at the ceiling, Angel once again found himself regretting his own inadequacy at magic. Ever since Paige had picked him and Cole up in his apartment and taken them back to the Manor, Angel had been feeling increasingly redundant at the moment.

Given the nature of the demon they were dealing with- apparently another assassin in the Underworld, dispatched by the Source to kill witches- Cole was able to provide at least _some_ helpful information about what the demon might attempt next, even if he couldn’t help out in a more active fashion.

As for the sisters and Leo, Phoebe was currently helping Emma- the woman whose fiancé had been killed by the demon they were dealing with- to scry for their new foe, with Cole staying with the two of them in case of an attack, while Paige and Piper worked on preparing a vanquishing potion. With the sisters otherwise occupied, Leo was keeping an eye on Susan- the witch who’d been a member of a coven with the previous victim- in case she was attacked again…

And Angel?

He was just sitting around, sipping at a mugful of warmed blood that Piper had requested from the butcher- Paige sometimes joked that Piper regarded Angel’s vampiric nature as an excuse to try and create new dishes- and waiting for something to happen.

He knew that he was being more than slightly petty, of course- it wasn’t anybody’s fault that, at the moment, he had nothing to contribute to the fight that presently faced them- but still…

He _did_ wish he’d been a bit more aware of the Underworld and its forces back when he was Angelus.

It was at times like this that he was strongly tempted to put his pride aside and ask one of the others- most likely Cole and Leo, given their greater experience- to give him a few lessons in magic. After all, this ‘Emma’ woman they’d encountered- her fiancé had apparently been killed by the demon and she wanted revenge, a fact that Angel could totally sympathise with- was _totally_ normal, and yet she’d managed to teach herself more than the basics of magic, so surely it couldn’t be too hard for him to learn, given that he was a vampire and a supernatural-based creature himself?

Then again, maybe messing with magic wouldn’t be a smart move; he might do something that accidentally interfered with the curse, and _then_ where would he be? There was no guarantee he’d get his soul back if he lost it again, and he was _not_ going to do _anything_ that might let Angelus out once again.

Not now that, for the first time in over a century, he actually had something- more, he had some _one_ \- to live for…

Before he could continue that train of thought, however, Phoebe and Emma came hurrying down the stairs from the attic, looking around themselves in panic as they burst into the lounge. Confused, Angel stood up to look at the two women, but Phoebe spoke before he could ask them what was going on.

“Have you seen anyone here who shouldn’t be?” the seer asked, looking pointedly at Angel, as though she suspected he’d lie to her and was prepared to study him carefully in case there was some sign of it. Angel knew that, as far as Phoebe was concerned, he was on rather shaky ground when it came to her actually _trusting_ him, but he generally tried to ignore it; after all, it wasn’t like he often felt the same way on some occasions.

“Not that I can think of,” Angel said, looking between Phoebe and Emma in confusion, even as he took care to stay away from the sunlight coming in from the windows; given her evidently anti-demon stance, he wasn’t sure it would be a good idea to let Emma know he was a vampire. “What’s wrong?”

“I was scrying for the demon, a-and, according to the map, he’s r-right _here_!” Emma yelled at Angel. For a moment, the vampire was surprised at the fear she was showing- when he and Cole had arrived earlier, she’d seemed to be rather confident- but he supposed that the circumstances were different. Before, she’d always gone _after_ the demon; however slight the advantage surprise may have given her, it had still been an advantage of sorts. If the demon was actually _hunting_ her this time, Emma would most likely have lost even that fragile hope she’d ever possessed of taking her target by surprise…

Before Angel could complete that train of thought, however, Cole had suddenly appeared at the bottom of the stairs, looking anxiously over at Angel, Phoebe and Emma.

“He’s not down here; Angel hasn’t seen him,” Phoebe said, in response to her boyfriend’s unanswered question as he looked in her direction. “How about upstairs?”

Cole shook his head.

“Nothing,” he answered, a slightly frustrated expression on his face. He was just about to say something else when Leo suddenly orbed into the middle of the room with Susan, looking anxiously at the others.

“It’s the ADA,” Leo said, in response to the confused expressions of his friends and sister-in-law, Susan looking around him in terror.

“What; that ‘Sykes’ guy?” Angel said, looking in surprise at Leo before looking back at Cole, a small smile on his face. “Guess you must have started some kind of trend for these guys.”

“He tried to kill her,” Leo explained, apparently ignoring Angel’s weak attempt at a joke as he looked anxiously at Phoebe. “I don't know if he followed us here or not-“

Before Leo could continue talking, however, the question of whether or not Sykes was still after them was answered; the air shimmered briefly, and the figure of the ADA who’d been questioning Susan at the crime scene last night appeared in the middle of the lounge.

Evidently, Leo’s question had just been answered; he _had_ followed them to Halliwell Manor.

“Watch out!” Phoebe yelled, as Sykes raised one hand to hurl an energy ball in the direction of Leo and Susan; the Whitelighter only just managed to grab Susan’s arm and yank her out of harm’s way before the ball struck. Instantly, Cole had lashed out with his own energy ball, but Sykes just ducked himself and managed to avoid it, leaving Angel to dive behind the sofa or risk losing his head to ‘friendly fire’.

“GO!” Phoebe yelled over at Leo and Susan. “Get her _out_ of here; we’ll handle this!”

Nodding, Leo grabbed Susan’s arm and began to hurry up the stairs towards the upper floors. Sykes moved to go after them, but before he could take more than a few steps- as Susan was so close, he probably didn’t think it was worth his time to bother shimmering- he swiftly found himself pinned to the floor by over a hundred pounds of a very hacked-off vampire with a curse, twisting his arms behind his back in a manner clearly intended to imply that they would be broken if he so much as moved.

Unfortunately for Angel, in his enraged desire to see Sykes dead for attacking his first friends since he became a vampire, he’d neglected to remember precisely _what_ he was dealing with. Sykes simply shimmered away from underneath Angel, leaving the vampire to fall the few inches between him and the floor as the demon reappeared beside Angel, standing up and looking down at Angel critically.

“You’ll have to do better than _that_ ,” he said, staring harshly down at the vampire even as Angel rolled over onto his back and rapidly leapt to his feet, already tensed to confront his opponent as Sykes shifted into demon form (The guy _did_ resemble Belthazor, Angel had to admit; he just seemed a bit… less developed, for lack of a better term, as though he was still training)…

Only for the red-skinned demon that Sykes to suddenly freeze in position before the vampire, mouth open as he raised one hand to create a new energy ball, as Piper and Paige rushed into the room, the two witches glancing around to make sure that everyone else was safe. Glancing around himself, Angel noted that Phoebe had managed to force Emma out of harm’s way behind the sofa that he had ducked behind for cover himself mere moments ago; Emma didn’t sound exactly happy about it, but at least everyone was still alive.

“Hurry; slice him!” Piper yelled at Paige, indicating the demon. Glancing at his girlfriend’s hand, Angel noted that she was holding a small knife in her hand, and was staring at the frozen demon with a slightly disturbed expression on her face as she moved in towards him.

“Paige, just _do_ it!” Piper yelled over at her sister. “Hey, you’ve staked a _vampire_ already; it’s a bit late to be getting squeamish about using knives all of a sudden!”

Apparently, that comment was enough; nodding resolutely, even as she closed her eyes in momentary disgust at what she was doing, Paige raised the knife to the demon’s wrist, placed it there for a moment, and then rapidly drew it down, carving off a chunk of flesh, leaving the demon’s hand oozing black blood from the wound as she hurried back to her sisters…

Just as Sykes unfroze, raising one hand to launch an energy ball in Paige’s direction. Angel lunged forward, throwing Sykes to the floor before the demon could launch his attack in Paige’s direction, but before Angel could come up with a better plan of attack, Sykes had once again shimmered out from under him and was standing above him, glaring critically at the vampire.

“Nice try… _idiot_ ,” he said, as Angel quickly leapt to his feet as he stared at Sykes. “Didn’t you learn that won’t work when you tried it _last_ time?”

“Maybe not,” a voice said from off to the side, “but _this_ might.”

Glancing in the direction of the voice, Angel and Sykes saw the red-skinned form of Belthazor standing before them, glaring at Sykes.

Sykes, however, didn’t even seem to be all that fazed by Cole’s new appearance; he just grinned broadly at the other demon.

“Belthazor!” he said, sounding almost pleased at the sight before him. “We meet at last!”

“But not for long!” Belthazor roared, as he raised his hand to summon an energy ball, before hurling it towards Sykes. Unfortunately, it didn’t hit its target; even as Angel watched, Sykes, moving at a speed that even Angel’s vampire instincts would have found hard to duplicate, created and hurled his own energy ball to intercept Cole’s own, sending a shudder through the manor as the two balls struck. Angel managed to retain his balance despite the powerful shockwaves, as did Belthazor and Sykes, but the rest of the people in the manor stumbled slightly, Paige and Emma literally falling to the ground from the sheer force of the impact.

Glancing around himself at his handiwork, Sykes smiled briefly before looking back at Belthazor.

“We’ll finish this _later_ ,” he said, chuckling slightly at the other demon before he shimmered away, leaving Belthazor to turn back into Cole as the Halliwells, Emma, Susan and Leo got back to their feet.

“Everyone OK?” Piper asked, glancing around anxiously at her friends.

“Yeah, I’m fine…” Phoebe began, before stopping, a concerned expression on her face as she looked at something behind Angel. “Emma?”

Glancing behind him, Angel saw what Phoebe was anxious about; the young woman was looking at Cole with an expression of cold hatred in her eyes.

“He’s not the demon who killed my fiancé,” she said, her gaze fixed on Cole as though she wanted him to burst into flames right then. “ _He_ is.”

Angel’s eyes widened slightly at that, and he looked over at Cole with a renewed sense of sympathy.

In some ways, this had been part of the reason he’d tried to stay out of the affairs of the world shortly after regaining his soul; he hadn’t wanted to take the chance that he’d encounter somebody he’d already wronged as Angelus.

Of course, these days, he never had to worry about that happening; most of the people he’d wronged as Angelus were dead, and their ancestors could hardly be expected to want revenge on him after all this time.

Cole… For all his efforts to change, some of the people he’d hurt would still be alive.

It was official; this was _definitely_ going to be awkward…

* * *

  
About an hour later, with Leo having taken Susan to another safe location, Phoebe talking to Emma, and Cole and Angel simply hanging around in case of another attack, Piper and Paige stood in the kitchen, pouring over the vanquishing potion that should allow them to take Sykes out once and for all. Fortunately, Piper still had the recipe for the potion the sisters had once tried to use to vanquish Belthazor- solely in case it had ever been useful on another occasion, Piper had assured Phoebe when she found it; they were _not_ intending to vanquish Cole without her consent- so all they had to do was whip up the potion once again and leave it at that.

Despite her best efforts, however, Paige was finding it hard to totally focus on the potion in front of her; other matters were currently occupying her attention more.

Specifically, the little matter involving Cole having _killed_ Emma’s fiancé shortly before he met Phoebe.

Oh, she knew she didn’t have to worry about him trying to kill _her_ or anything like that; Paige genuinely _believed_ that Cole was at least interested in making it work with _Phoebe_ , even if she had some doubts about him being able to deal with his half-demon side and all that…

It was just that… everyone seemed to be finding it so _easy_ to just… _forget_ what he’d done in the past. She acknowledged that Cole did seem to be sorry about it, but that hardly made up for everything he’d done, in her opinion; he’d _killed_ a man, and everyone seemed to be going on as though nothing had changed.

“OK,” Piper said from off to one side, breaking into Paige’s train of thought; she’d been so lost in thought that she’d barely even registered that she was still helping her sister prepare the vanquishing potion for the new demon. “We just need the pig’s feet, over there by the mandrake root.”

Despite herself, Paige couldn’t help but chuckle slightly at that comment; it make her think of a little ‘joke’- no matter how bad it was- she’d been waiting to try out for a while.

“Poor piggy, piggy,” she said, tutting slightly as she reached into the cupboard where they kept the potion ingredients and pulled the required jar out.

“They're sensitive creatures, you know,” she said as she turned to look at her sister, a small smile on her face as she passed the jar to Piper. “Smart too.”

“Yeah?” Piper asked, raising a critical eyebrow as she indicated the jar in Paige’s hand. “Not _that_ one.”

Rolling her eyes in mock exasperation at her sister, Paige tossed the pig feet into the potion, stepping back to avoid being burnt by the flames that shot up from the bowl containing the mixed ingredients.

“OK,” Piper said, glancing at the recipe beside her before looking back at her sister, “so all we need to do is drop in the piece of Sykes’ flesh.” As Paige stepped up towards the potion, pulling the piece of flesh out of the plastic bag she’d placed it in, she vaguely noticed Piper stepping back slightly, but shook it off; it wasn’t important right now. (She gradually steps away from the potion.)

“Right, just drop it in,” Piper said, from her new position of slightly behind Paige. Not even bothering to ask _why_ her sister was in such a position, Paige tossed the hunk of flesh into the potion…

Causing the potion in question to practically explode in her face, sending Paige falling to the ground, Piper’s giggles only vaguely audible over the sudden ringing in her ears.

As she got back onto her feet, Paige glared over at her sister, who was still chuckling slightly around her hand.

“You did that on purpose, didn't you?” she said, her eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at Piper (Who, much to Paige’s annoyance, continued to chuckle; she evidently wasn’t as good at the ‘intimidating glare’ thing as Angel was).

“Yeah,” Piper said a moment later, now slightly calmer as she looked at Paige. “Don’t worry about it; it happened to me last year. No substitute for experience.”

Before Paige could reply, Cole had dashed in, looking anxiously around as though searching for the cause of the explosion; evidently he was concerned that Sykes had tried to attack them before they were ready to fight back against him.

“You girls alright?” he asked, looking over at Piper and Paige once he’d established that their current foe _wasn’t_ hurling energy balls at them.

Piper shrugged casually, as though nothing untoward like an explosion had just taken place. “Yeah,” she said dismissively. “Just doing a little sisterly bonding, that's all.”

With that said, her expression fell and became more serious as she looked at Cole. “Where's Phoebe? The potion will be ready in a couple of minutes.”

“Yeah, she’ll be back soon,” Cole explained, looking apologetically at Piper. “She wanted to talk to Emma, explain things.”

“Good luck with _that_ ,” Paige said, snorting sceptically at Cole at that comment.

Quite frankly, she couldn’t see _what_ Phoebe could say to Emma that could _ever_ serve to justify Cole’s actions…

That statement of Paige’s seemed to serve as the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.

“Look, I don't _need_ the guilt from you, OK?” the former assassin said, turning to glare in frustration at Paige, his fists clenched as though a part of him just wanted to hit her (Which, given his demon side, may not have been far from the truth). “I've got enough of my _own_ to deal with.”

“What, and you think that covers it?” Paige retorted, putting the potion ingredients aside to walk closer to Cole, glaring at him all the while. “You think _that_ excuses what you did?”

“Paige, don't,” Piper said, stepping forward to stand slightly between Cole and Paige, staring at her sister in an attempt to calm her down.

“Don't what, Piper?” Paige yelled in frustration, slamming a hand down on the table as she looked at Piper. “He _killed_ a man; are we _really_ just going to forget that?!”

“You did it for me,” a voice said from behind Paige.

If possible, Paige became even paler than normal at the sound of that voice; it had been the _last_ person she’d wanted to hear her talking like this.

It was Angel.

As Paige turned in the direction of the voice, she swallowed anxiously as she saw her boyfriend standing in the door of the kitchen, a slightly stained mug in his hand as he looked at her with an expression that could have been carved from stone.

“You’ve always told me that it didn’t matter to you what I’d done in the past,” Angel said, his eyes remaining fixed on Paige as he spoke; Piper and Cole just remained silent. “Every time I’ve felt like blaming _myself_ for what I did before I was cursed, you’ve told me that it was _Angelus_ who did those things, rather than me. Whenever I’ve started talking about my past, you’ve made it clear that you _don’t_ blame me for what I’ve done, that you regard Angelus as a separate person and I shouldn’t blame myself for his crimes…”

For a moment, Angel simply stopped speaking, staring at Paige as she took in what he’d just said to her, and then delivered his closing statement in the current stage of the ‘argument’.

“But, when you get down to the basics, what you’ve just said about Cole could also be applicable to me; I’ve killed _hundreds_ of people, even if it wasn’t quite the me I am now, and you could easily blame me for it, even though I regret what I did.

“Think about it.”

Before Paige could recover enough to do anything other than stare in shock at Angel, the vampire had walked around her and was looking at Cole and Piper, his stance giving no indication that he was thinking about what he’d just told her; he was all business right now.

* * *

  
“So,” Angel said, as though he hadn’t just given his ‘speech’ to Paige, taking care not to look in her direction as he spoke to the former killer who a part of him was already considering a close friend, “we’re dealing with a demon who appears to be trying to be the new Belthazor?”

“Uh… pretty much, yeah,” Cole said, a slightly awkward expression on his face; it almost looked as though he was slightly embarrassed at Angel’s defence of his past actions.

Then he smiled slightly, as though at some pleasant thought. “Of course, if he _is_ trying to emulate me, it’s pretty easy to work out what he’ll do next; go after the Charmed Ones.”

“Straightforward,” Angel said, nodding in response to his friend’s assessment; he vaguely registered Paige’s mouth open, as though about to automatically make a comment, and had wanted to beat her to it. He didn’t want to hear what kind of response she made to Cole.

He knew she didn’t mean anything by it, _knew_ that she had made it clear that she regarded him and Cole as two separate cases, but still, his point stood valid, as far as he was concerned.

There really wasn’t _that_ much difference between him and Cole, when you got past the fact that Cole was a magic-wielding half-demon assassin and Angel was a former mass murdering vampire who’d been cursed with a soul; both of them were trying to make up for the sins of their pasts by fighting what they’d once been.

Some may call him petty, but he’d like to know that Paige could appreciate that fact, acknowledge that Angel wasn’t just a special case who deserved special treatment; he and Cole were closer to each other than either of them might have liked to admit, and he needed Paige to acknowledge that…

Because only then could she truly acknowledge that it wasn’t perfectly _simple_ for him to have gone good.

It would have been all too easy for him to have remained a killer even _with_ his soul.

He wanted to know that Paige acknowledged the similarities between him and Cole, because only _then_ could he be sure that she accepted him for _all_ his faults of the past, rather than that she was just pretending they weren’t there.

“Uh… so…” Piper said, raising her hand slightly as she looked awkwardly between the two former killers, trying not to look at Paige as she spoke. “Any ideas where he’d go next?”

As much as Piper hated to ‘ignore’ Paige at the moment, she had to focus on the matter at hand, and, if she saw her ‘little sister’- she still had trouble thinking of Paige like that, even after this amount of time- in the shaken state she’d doubtless be in after Angel’s _last_ statement, she’d probably be more focused on comforting her than actually _doing_ something about this…

“Well…” Cole said, nodding thoughtfully for a moment before an idea seemed to come to him. “I’d need to regroup before I did anything… tend to that cut from when Paige took the flesh…”

“He won’t just go somewhere that you’d go; he’ll anticipate that,” Angel said, looking critically at Cole as though he was a detective grilling a suspect. “If we try the destination that would be _your_ first choice, he’ll just have a trap set for us; you’ll need to go along to anticipate what he might try.”

Cole opened his mouth as though to say something, but Angel raised a hand to stop him. “If you’re about to suggest I come along, don’t; I doubt he’ll be prepared to give us time to scout around the area before all of us go in, and if you shimmer me somewhere in the sunshine, I’ll have a _definite_ problem.”

“Fair enough,” Piper said, before anyone could interrupt. Reaching over to a nearby shelf, she picked up a few empty vials and began to fill them with the vanquishing potion. “Angel, you stay here and hold down the fort; let Leo or Phoebe know where we are when they come back. Paige, Cole and I’d better get going; we’ll need to get this guy before he moves on.”

Angel nodded at that. A part of him may still wish that he could accompany Paige to keep an eye on her, but the rest of him wanted to give her a little time to think on what he’d said before they next had to work with each other to vanquish a demon or get into a battle of some kind.

Besides, this was a straightforward enough vanquish; just hit him with the potion and that was it over and done with.

If all went well, Sykes should be gone by the time the Charmed Ones got back here.

Which was why Angel would need to move fast when Sykes showed up at the Manor; he somehow doubted that their foe would make it easy by waiting _anywhere_ for them, particularly when Angel wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this guy was after _Cole_ more than anything else…

Angel wasn’t going to let them be put at risk right now.

He wanted Sykes all to himself when the guy showed up looking for the sisters again.

Whether Angel or Angelus, he didn’t take well to losing a fight, and he wasn’t about to start accepting it so long as there was something he could do about it.

* * *

  
About half an hour later, as Angel sat in the manor’s main leisure room, arms slung back over the couch as he waited for something to happen, secretly tensed to spring into action at a moment’s notice, his mind already active as he tried to come up with a way to taking out a demon like Sykes in a fight. After all, as Sykes had already demonstrated, his ability to shimmer made it hard for Angel to just immobilise him for any length of time, and Angel still couldn’t be sure exactly how _strong_ Sykes was in a fight…

No; his best bet seemed to be to remain close to Sykes and stop him using his energy balls, disarm him so he couldn’t do as much damage, and then just keep hitting his head so he couldn’t _focus_ enough to shimmer.

In other words, Angel _may_ have made a mistake in deciding to try and corner Sykes by himself.

It kept his friends out of danger, true, but did it actually help _him_?

Plus, nothing had actually happened yet, but Sykes should have had time to heal his wound by now.

Then he heard the sound of the door opening.

“Cole?” Phoebe’s voice said as the door shut behind her.

“Phoebe?” Angel said, sitting up to look at her, noting her slightly anxious expression. “Something wrong?”

“Uh… yeah,” Phoebe said, looking awkwardly at Angel; he knew that, ironically, she was the Halliwell who had the most trouble with his presence, and it didn’t take a genius to see that she was slightly on-edge at his presence here. “It’s… well, Emma’s not really believing me about Cole; she still thinks-”

It was about at that moment that Sykes shimmered in directly behind Phoebe, an athame in his hand pointing at her neck as he looked casually at Angel.

“A bit arrogant of you, Angelus, to think that _you_ could ever stop _me_ in a fight,” he said, a small smirk on his face as he held the blade against Phoebe’s jugular vein. “Did you seriously think you’d even have a _chance_ against me?”

Angel just shrugged slightly.

“Well, the thought came to mind,” he said, already shifting his body into a combat stance, ready to attack Sykes the moment he had an opening.“Look, what do you even _want_ here?” Phoebe asked; if Angel hadn’t known better he would have thought that she looked like she was _resenting_ the fact that she was being ignored at knifepoint, judging by the expression on her face.

“Oh, the same thing you do, Miss Halliwell,” Sykes replied, chuckling slightly as he turned his attention back to the woman whose life he held in his hands, even as he kept one eye looking direction at Angel. “It’s just that I call him Belthazor.”

“And what makes you think _you_ can vanquish him when so many other people have failed?” Angel asked, raising a critical eyebrow as he stared at his foe, already edging back slightly towards the sofa, tuning out Sykes’ voice as he tried to come up with a plan of attack. He knew Piper wouldn’t be exactly thrilled about the damage that this would do to her cushions, but if he could grab a couple of them from the sofa, he might be able to use them as a kind of ‘shield’ to protect himself from Sykes’s energy balls long enough to reach the demon…

If it hadn’t been for the fact that a sudden movement could have been interpreted the wrong way, Angel would have hit his head in frustration as he suddenly realised a simple fact.

That would _never_ work; the energy balls would just fry whatever he held instantly and he’d be exposed all over again.

He needed to try something else if he was going to survive…

It was a long shot that this would work, of course- she’d never fully tapped into that side of her Whitelighter abilities yet, and he wasn’t even sure if he could _count_ as her ‘charge’ in any sense- but, if this didn’t work, he’d just have to fight and hope he was fast enough.

 _PAIGE!!_ he ‘yelled’ in his head, hoping that intent alone would suffice where words couldn’t right now…

* * *

  
And, miles away, in the mausoleum where Cole had once hidden prior to affecting his escape from the witches who had tried to kill him, Paige’s head shot up and her eyes widened.

“Angel…” she whispered softly.

“What?” Cole said, as he and Piper looked over from where they were just about to enter the mausoleum.

Paige didn’t bother to answer his question; somehow, on some level, she _knew_ that she wouldn’t have the time. She just grabbed Piper and Cole’s arms, focused as hard as she could, praying she’d managed to get the hang of this by now- even with the practice she’d had when orbing Angel to the Manor that night she’d discovered he was a vampire, she still wasn’t used to orbing more than herself to other destinations- felt the familiar tingle of orbing around her…

* * *

  
And then the three of them were standing in the Manor hallway, where Sykes and Angel were facing each other as Sykes held a blade to Phoebe’s throat.

“Phoebe!” Paige yelled, holding out her hands almost instinctively to ‘catch’ her older sister as Phoebe turned into a ball of energy and arrived in front of Paige.

As soon as Phoebe was out of the way, Cole and Angel didn’t hesitate; as Angel vamped out, Cole shifted into Belthazor, and the two of them charged at Sykes. Before Sykes could even _think_ about shimmering, Angel had launched a powerful punch at his foe’s head, striking Sykes directly in the left eye, before he vaulted over the demon, giving Cole the chance to launch an energy ball at Sykes’s chest. As the demon staggered back, Angel grabbed the athame from Sykes’s hand and lunged at the demon with it, the blade aimed for his shoulder…

Only for Sykes to grab Angel’s arm, the blade mere inches from its target, and hurl Angel over his shoulder towards the sofa, the blade flying into a nearby wall as it fell from Angel’s hand. Before anyone could react, Sykes followed his attack on Angel with an energy ball that struck Angel in the chest with such force that the vampire was sent flying into the opposite wall.

“ANGEL!” Paige yelled in horror, running towards her boyfriend, the instinctive shock she’d felt at the attack briefly making her forget the demon who was still behind them. Before Piper could do anything, Sykes had raised his hand to generate an energy ball, only for the hand to be caught by Belthazor, who rapidly twisted the arm back so sharply that it broke.

Sykes let out a strangled scream of agony, which quickly terminated as Belthazor grabbed his neck and twisted it rapidly. A loud snap was heard, making it clear to all of the current observers that the demon’s neck had been broken, and then Sykes collapsed to the ground, leaving Belthazor standing in the middle of the room, staring dispassionately at the people around him as his former foe burned into ashes before him.

“Cole…” Phoebe said, staring anxiously at her lover as he studied his surroundings, a glare in his eyes that looked like he was trying to decide which one of them to kill first. “Please, you can do this, you're good…”

Whether or not Phoebe’s appeal to Cole would have worked rapidly became academic; from behind the sisters, they suddenly heard the sound of someone picking up a bottle. Spinning around, Piper, Phoebe, Paige, Leo and Angel saw Emma (Who, fortunately, appeared to have not noticed Angel’s injuries; she certainly didn’t _seem_ curious about why his shirt was practically incinerated but his chest was fine) hurl a bottle towards Belthazor. As soon as the bottle struck him, flames surrounded the red-skinned demon, causing him to scream in agony as the others in the room watched in horror, unable to do _anything_ to help their friend…

Then the flames disappeared, leaving Cole Turner- alive and apparently unscathed- to drop to his knees before the sisters, their lovers and Emma, staring at the scene before them in shock and confusion.

Eventually, Paige finally broke the silence.

“Uh… what just happened?” she said, looking over at Phoebe in confusion; Emma, judging by the expression on her face, had definitely expected Cole to be dead.

“ _That_ was the power stripping potion I made to free Cole,” Phoebe explained, as, though still evidently shaky from having a blade to her throat only moments ago, she went over to crouch down beside Cole.

“Are you okay?” she whispered softly to him, before pulling him into a tender hug.

* * *

  
Behind the Charmed Ones, Emma was already preparing herself for her ‘back-up’ plan; if the potion _didn’t_ work, just stab Belthazor and hope for the best. Picking up the knife that had landed on the floor, she raised her hand as she began to edge towards the still form of Cole…

A hand grabbed her wrist, and Emma found herself staring at Angel, a significant burn on his chest that somehow added to the intensity of his glare.“No,” he said simply, as he stared at Emma. “You got the demon you were after; Cole’s just a human being now. He did _nothing_ to you…”

For a moment, Angel paused, as though trying to regain his breath, and then looked back at Emma, a fixed expression on his face.

“He’s innocent,” was all Angel had to say in the end, hoping that it would be enough to make his point. “You’ve got Belthazor; leave it at that.”For a moment, nothing was said, and it looked as Cole’s fate would come down to a fight between Emma and Phoebe…

Then Emma simply gave the knife to Angel and walked out.

Looking at the former demon before him, the knife that could have been his death so soon after regaining his humanity, Angel smiled slightly.

Maybe _he_ could never achieve his humanity once again, but he’d been able to help his friend enjoy the chance at a normal life that he may never be able to possess.

Cole was human now.

Belthazor was gone.

And somehow, even without the additional bonus of Sykes being vanquished, that made everything that had just happened worthwhile.

* * *

  
Half an hour later, as Angel sat on the sofa, once again sipping a mug of warmed pig’s blood to help his injuries, he looked up to see Paige walking towards him, an uncertain expression on her face.

“Hi,” he said, nodding briefly at her before he turned back to his drink.

Until he knew what her reasoning was for treating him as though he was human and Cole as though he was still a demon, he didn’t particularly want to talk to her at the moment.

“Uh… hi,” Paige said, looking awkwardly at him for a moment before she sighed. “Look, there’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it; the reason I can’t trust Cole but _can_ trust you is… well, you’re different.”

Angel sighed slightly as he put his mug down and looked over in Paige’s direction.

“I thought we’d established that-” he began, before Paige raised her hand to stop him.

“You’re _not_ the same, Angel,” she said, as she walked over to sit beside her boyfriend, placing a hand on his leg as she looked at him, grateful when he didn’t pull away. “When you killed all those people, you weren’t Angel; you were _Angelus_. You didn’t have a soul then, but you have one now; it’s-”

“When I first got my soul, I tried to stay with Darla, Spike and Drusilla by continuing to kill people,” Angel said.

Paige froze.

She hadn’t expected _that_ …

She’d always assumed that Angel had just automatically stopped killing after he received his soul; after all, he had a conscience after that, right?

The news that he’d actually _killed_ people _with_ the soul…

Then she noticed something in Angel’s body language.

“You didn’t kill indiscriminately, did you?” she asked, staring harshly at her boyfriend as he attempted to turn away from her. “Angel, there’s something you aren’t telling me about that, isn’t there? What _is_ it?”

For a moment, Angel looked like he wasn’t going to reply anyway, but, finally, he sighed and turned back to look at her.

“You… you’re right,” he said, looking down as though he didn’t want to look at her as he spoke. “I only killed criminals; I didn’t just kill anyone who happened to be nearby at the time… Hell, I left Darla after she asked me to kill a baby I’d saved earlier to ‘prove’ myself to her. I… well, I couldn’t do it…”

“And you got the kid away from her, huh?” Paige asked, a small smile on her face as she studied Angel. “Even all those years ago, and you _still_ tried to be the hero…”

Angel just grunted.

“It was too little, too late,” he said, as he turned away from Paige once again, although he continued speaking. “I was prepared to let people _die_ just because I wanted to be with Darla-”

“And, when the time came for it to really _count_ , you killed her, unless my memory’s _totally_ screwed up,” Paige pointed out, glaring at Angel.

For a moment, the two of them were silent, and then Paige sighed.

“You know… with that in mind, I suppose there _is_ something you and Cole have in common after all,” she said, as she looked back at Angel. She couldn’t believe she was saying this, couldn’t believe she was actually saying something _positive_ about a man who would once have been happy to _kill_ her…

But Angel was right; he and Cole weren’t _that_ different, and she didn't want to go through life being seen as a hypocrite by the man she loved.

“You both only became _truly_ good when you had a _reason_ to do it.”

Once again, there was a moment’s pause, and then Angel looked back at Paige, a small smile on his face.

“You’re acknowledging it?” he asked, a brief gleam of happiness in his eyes as he looked at the woman he loved.

Paige nodded. “Yeah… I guess I am,” she said, as she looked back at the man she… cared for. “I’m not saying you guys are _totally_ alike, but I get that there isn’t _that_ much difference between you and Cole…”

She paused for a moment, as though trying to work out how to say what she wanted to say, and then looked back up at Angel. “And… well, I’ll try and go easier on him now, OK?”

Angel didn’t reply to Paige’s statement.

He didn’t need to; the relief in his eyes was enough for her.

And, as they leaned towards each other once again, their lips meeting in a kiss of celebration and relief even as Phoebe and Cole discussed their current circumstances in the room above them, and as Piper and Leo discussed the possibilities of children…

For a moment, it seemed as though everything was all right in Halliwell Manor.


	14. The Pieces Have Come

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This storyline takes place between ‘Lost and Bound’ and ‘Charmed and Dangerous’, so Cole’s still human and the Source has been absent since the events of ‘Brain Drain’, although his lackeys have been as active as ever

As she walked down the stairs of Halliwell Manor, already dressed and ready for another day at work, Piper was surprised to hear a sound coming from the kitchen.

Specifically, the sound of both someone humming _and_ someone preparing breakfast.

The first wasn’t a _complete_ surprise, Piper had to admit. After all, she and her sisters were all adult women in the prime of life, each of them in healthy, happy relationships, so a little humming now and again when one or the other of them was in a good mood wasn’t _that_ strange a thing to have taken place…

It was more the fact that it was taking place at this time of day that surprised Piper. Normally, she was the first one up in the Manor, mainly because she enjoyed the chance to get a head-start on breakfast for the others after a relaxing night _without_ anything needing vanquished. The idea that someone else could be awake _first_ …

Then she turned the corner into the kitchen, and she finally saw who was singing.

It was Paige, a broad smile on her face and already dressed for work as she prepared herself a couple of pieces of toast, humming what Piper now identified as ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’ as she spun around the kitchen, a knife in one hand and a plate in the other as she waited for the toaster to finish.

“Uh… hey,” Piper said, breaking her momentary confused silence, prompting Paige to stop and look at her sister with a slight trace of embarrassment.

“Oh… hi,” she said, smiling brightly as a faint blush crossed her cheeks. “Just… woke up feeling a bit happy this morning, I guess. I mean, it’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining, work’s going well, we haven’t had any demons for a while now… what’s not to like?”

Piper smiled slightly at that. She may still not know Paige as well as she would have liked, but she liked to think she had formed a close bond with her new little sister in the few months or so since she’d joined the Charmed Ones, and she knew for a _fact_ that there was another reason for Paige’s attitude…

Specifically, the reason was a certain cursed vampire with a taste for black clothes who could have won the brooding championships if such a contest had ever been declared.

“Have a good night with Angel?” she asked teasingly.

“ _What_?” Paige said, actually managing to look genuinely offended as she looked at Piper incredulously. “Why do you _always_ assume that Angel’s the _only_ reason that I could be in a good-”

“Because it’s been like this for all of us the past _week_ or so- well, good weather and non-demony, that is; work kinda varies for all of us- and you’ve _always_ only been particularly… cheery, shall we say?… when you’ve spent the night out with a certain vampire we all know and- if not love- like or tolerate?” Piper replied, grinning teasingly at Paige. “Where was it this time for you two? Went to a movie, danced a bit at a club, what?”

For a moment, it looked like Paige was going to continue to try and protest, but, after a moment’s pause, she sighed and sat back down, looking at Piper critically as she did so.

“You know, you have no _right_ to be so… _right_ all the time,” she said, before she sighed and nodded. “Actually, it was both; we checked out _The Count of Monte Cristo_ at the cinema- not bad, really, even if it does miss some bits of the original book- and then headed off to this nightclub.”

“Not P3 as usual, I take it?” Piper replied, already knowing the answer; when it came to dating, Paige was often reluctant to spend time with Angel at P3; the only exception to the rule was when it was Angel’s turn at the bar. Piper had once asked Paige why this was, and Paige had explained that she just wanted to keep some parts of her time with Angel _away_ from the world of demons and magic that they normally inhabited. P3 may have been more of a _positive_ part of the sisters’ lives, but Paige would still prefer it if she and Angel had fun somewhere else than just hanging out there all the time.

“Yeah, it was some other club near the city centre; can’t recall the name, but I think it was commonly used for raves or stuff like that,” Paige said, smiling wistfully as she looked up at the ceiling, as though examining some picture only she could see. “God… what a night…”

Piper’s eyes widened slightly.

“Uh… when you say ‘What a night’…” she began, trying to conceal her hesitancy at discussing this topic; somehow, she found it harder to talk about Paige’s romantic life than she’d ever had with Phoebe, even when she and Prue had learned that Cole was still alive. “Do you mean that you two… y’know…?”

“No,” Paige said, shaking her head as she looked over at Piper, a slightly regretful expression on her face once again. “I tried to _make_ it go that far, believe me, but Angel… he just didn’t seem to _want_ to go any further than a few dances.”

Groaning in frustration slightly, Paige slumped back in her chair, staring up at the ceiling once again, her initial ‘happy mood’ now gone. “God… what is _up_ with that man?”

Piper didn’t bother to answer that question; she, along with everyone else in the house, knew that it was a rhetorical question. Paige had already discussed this with Piper and Phoebe- she’d been slightly frustrated by the apparent lack of progress she and Angel were making in their relationship- and Phoebe had suggested that Angel’s guilt over his past meant that he didn’t think he _deserved_ Paige.

“ _After all_ ,” Phoebe had explained, when the three of them had first had this discussion, “ _as far as he’s concerned, even if_ he _didn’t do it, he’s got countless memories of committing several brutal murders over the course of about a hundred and fifty years. Taking into account that you’re both part-witch_ and _part-Whitelighter- you could say that you almost_ personify _good, really- coupled with the fact that you’ve accepted_ him _without any reservations, and… well, maybe Angel hasn’t made the final step because he doesn’t think he deserves to make love to someone as ‘perfect’ as you?_ ”

Paige had accepted Phoebe’s reasoning at the time, and had promised not to push Angel about it- according to Phoebe, this kind of thing could only be dealt with when Angel himself was ready to take the final step- but it didn’t take a genius to see that Paige was getting frustrated about it all.

As much as she loved Angel as a _person_ , Paige clearly wanted the whole package; mind, body _and_ soul, rather than just the first and third of those.

“Hey, don’t worry about it, OK?” Piper said, leaning over to pat Paige reassuringly on the arm. “You’ll get through to him in the end, I’m sure of it; just… give him some time, OK?”

“Yeah… I know…” Paige said, nodding wistfully as she glanced over at her sister, a slightly dejected expression on her face. “I just wish I knew _when_ …”

The sound of footsteps on the stairs distracted the two sisters from their conversation, and, glancing up, they watched as Phoebe came into the room, still wearing her pyjamas and looking slightly bleary-eyed.

“Cole already left?” Piper asked, looking inquiringly at her sister. Since he became human, Cole had alternated between staying with them and roaming the city to try and find an actual job. Of course, he had also been given the offer to share Angel’s apartment- Phoebe in particular had thought it might help Cole adjust to the changes in his life if he was with someone who had a better idea what he was going through- but Cole had preferred to stay with Phoebe for the moment, although he often left early to spend some time alone each day.

Personally, Piper thought he was just trying to figure out how he could be useful to them without his demon powers, but she hadn’t actually voiced her opinion yet; she didn’t see how Cole’s decisions about his life were her concern.

“Yeah, he said he was going to see about taking a few self-defence lessons; you know, learn how to fight now that he _doesn’t_ have Belthazor’s strength to fall back on when the going gets tought,” Phoebe explained, as she poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down beside her sisters, looking casually over at the two of them. “Anyway, what’s up with you guys? Anything interesting at work and/or personal lives?”

Paige shrugged dismissively.

“Not much on either front, really; everything’s pretty much the same,” she said, once again attempting to sound casual as she spoke; somehow, she didn’t feel like discussing her relationship with Angel with her sister at the moment.

“Pretty much the same over here; pretty quiet, really,” Piper said casually as she looked at her sisters, before a thought seemed to occur to her and she leaned forward. “Actually, that’s not totally true; there _is_ something else going on, and, actually, I’d appreciate your help with it.”

“What’s up?” Phoebe asked, looking curiously over at her sister.

“Well, given the whole thing with the vampires breaking into the club last night, it occurred to me it might be an idea to see if there’s some way of blocking them from coming in; you know, making P3 a not- _quite_ -so-public-access building as it is at the moment, or at least making it less accessible to a certain group of blood-drinking walking dead guys…”

“And you’d like our help in checking that out?” Phoebe asked, smiling over at her sister. “Sure, no sweat; when do you want us there?”

“Just as soon as you can be; I’m closing the club for the night to give us time to find a way to deal with the problem,” Piper explained, as she looked at her sisters. “Feel free to bring your significant others as well, by the way; Angel and Cole could be able to provide some suggestions.”

“Yeah, sure thing,” Paige said, before glancing eat her watch and sighing as she stood up. “Sorry, but I’ve got to go; I’m nearly late.”

“Oh, sure thing; see you tonight,” Piper said, as Paige got up and headed for the door.

As soon as their sister was out of the room, Phoebe turned a critical glance onto Piper.

“She’s a bit frustrated at how things are going with Angel, huh?” she asked, smiling slightly at her sister.

“Yeah, you got that right,” Piper said, sighing slightly as she looked at her sister. “I mean, just because she understands _why_ he’s got issues doesn’t make it any easier for her.”

Phoebe sighed slightly as she glanced at the door Paige had just departed by before looking back at Piper.

“You know, this is _definitely_ one of those occasions where the personal gain rule’s a bit of a pain in the neck,” she said, shaking her head in annoyance. “I mean, we go to all this trouble to save the world, and they can’t let us cast a _little_ spell to help Angel get over his issues?”

Noting her sister’s confused expression, Phoebe raised her hands defensively. “Hey, I’m not saying counselling isn’t effective; it’s just that I don’t see Angel wanting to talk about his issues with the sister of the girl he’s _dating_ , and a professional psychiatrist is _definitely_ not a possibility.”

Piper had to admit, Phoebe had a point; after all, how were they going to find a psychiatrist who’d actually _believe_ Angel’s story about being a two hundred and fifty year-old vampire? Even if they did find one, they’d probably have to wipe his memories of the whole thing afterwards to keep the magic thing secret, which could just get inconvenient if Angel needed to talk to them again…

“Ah well,” Piper said, shrugging slightly as she looked back at Phoebe. “Life wasn’t made to be easy, I guess.”

Standing up, Piper stretched slightly and then looked back at Phoebe. “C’mon, let’s go; I’ve got a few things I’d like to check out at the club before we get on with figuring out a way to block vampires from the place.”

* * *

  
Miles away, in a darkened warehouse, a vampire entered via the main door, a large wooden box in his arms as he looked around for the people who had asked him to fetch the box in question.

“I have your package,” he said, looking around himself as though anxious to get this over and done with.

“Just put it on the table,” a voice said from off to the side, a slight smirk evident in its tone. “Near the other… gifts.”

As the vampire walked over to the table in question, Spike and Drusilla watched him from off to the side, a smile on both their faces as they studied the box. In general, the two of them were much the same as they had been during their previous visit to San Francisco, even wearing the same clothes; the only difference was that Spike was now in a wheelchair.

He wasn’t sure how, exactly, but in the Battle of P3, when Spike had been kicked away from Angel and attacked by Piper, her last attempt to blow him up had damaged something in his spine, and he could no longer move his legs. Sometimes Spike felt that more than the nerves for his legs might have been damaged- he was pretty sure he wouldn’t have been able to _breathe_ any more if he was still human- but, as he wasn’t he’d put that aside.

Glancing up at Drusilla, he casually raised an eyebrow as he studied the boxes in front of them.

“Are you dead set on this, pet?” he asked, indicating the boxes before the two of them. “Wouldn't you rather have your party in Vienna?”

“But the invitations are sent,” Drusilla said, pouting slightly as she looked back at Spike.

“Yeah…” Spike said, sighing in frustration as he looked back up at his sire. “It's just… I've _had_ it with this place. Nothing _ever_ comes off like it's supposed to…”

Drusilla just smiled sweetly at her briefly paralysed lover as she leaned in and put her hands on his chest.

“My gatherings are _always_ perfect,” she said, as she grinned lightly at him, crouching beside him. “Remember Spain?” She walked her fingers up his arm. “Hey... The bulls?”

“I remember, sweet,” Spike said, sighing slightly as he looked at her. “But San Fran's cursed for us, thanks to Angel and the sodding ‘Power of Three’ bitches; you know that I _still_ can’t sodding walk after what that one did to my back.”

“Shhh...” Drusilla said, as she leaned in to whisper into his ear. “I've got good games for everyone.”

Leaning in, she licked his cheek, and then leaned back to speak to him directly. “You'll see.”

Walking over to the table, she casually inspected the roses and other red flowers that she had been woven into the high backs of the chairs, stepping up to one with a small, sad smile on her face as she did so.

“These flowers...” Drusilla said, looking critically at them for a moment before shaking her head critically. “… are wrong. They're all... wrong!”

As she moaned in frustration, Spike swallowed anxiously; given that he was currently unable to even _walk_ independently, he wasn’t really eager to have Drusilla suffer a temper tantrum.

“I can't abide them!” Drusilla yelled, as she screamed and ripped at the various flowers.

“Let's try something… _different_ with the flowers then?” Spike asked, unable to conceal the slightly hopeful tone of his voice; he _really_ didn’t want Drusilla to start attacking him as well. Oh, he loved her, and knew that she wouldn’t hurt him, but it always became hard to really remember that second fact when she was in one of these moods…

Fortunately, she still retained enough of her mind even in these moments; even as she looked up at him, she already seemed to be calming down a bit.

For a moment, there was silence, then, as Spike watched, Drusilla’s eyes turned to the boxes that lay on the table, the newest box slumped on top of the small pile. Slowly, almost reverently, she walked over to the table and, reaching out, softly stroked one of the boxes as she looked back at Spike.

“Can I open one?” she asked, once again looking like the child she had ceased to be centuries ago. “Can I?”

Spike smiled softly back at her, as though he was a father granting his child a much longed-for present.

“Just a peek, love,” he said, enjoying the delighted grin that spread across her face at his words.

“Remember, they’re for the party,” he added, as she excitedly reached for the latch on one of them.

As he wheeled himself over to her, Drusilla lifted the lid of the box, softly inhaling in wonder as she smiled over at her lover.

“Do you like it, baby?” Spike asked, as he positioned his chair beside her.

“It reeks of death,” Drusilla replied, grinning over at him once again as she knelt down in front of Spike’s chair, still staring at the box.

“This will be the best party ever,” she said, as she stared at the box before her.

“Why is that?” Spike asked, looking curiously at her. He knew why, of course, but he liked to hear her say it.

“Because...” Drusilla said, as she stood up and leaned towards the box, taking the lid in her hands.

“It will be the last,” she said in conclusion, as she slammed the lid shut.

Spike chuckled slightly at that comment, flexing his fingers eagerly in anticipation; his abilities may be limited right now, but he was still eager to get at least some of the blood and bodies that would result from this little scheme of theirs.

He had to admit, this was going to be _very_ good…

* * *

  
A few hours later, Paige was driving through the streets of San Francisco, heading for Angel’s apartment and, from there, P3. Despite it already being dark, Paige had only just managed to get off work- an important case of some kind, apparently- so Piper had been unable to shut the club to get to work on the spell research until now; she wasn’t doing something this elaborate until she had _all_ of her sisters with her. Phoebe had apparently gone out to pick Cole up from wherever he had ended up on his walk- even after nearly a month, the man _still_ had trouble remembering that he needed change for the bus these days- but Paige had volunteered to pick Angel up herself.

As she pulled up outside his building, she glanced up at the window to his apartment, and smiled slightly as she saw his silhouette, crouched over something at the window. Although Angel hadn’t showed her any of his pictures yet, Cole had told her all about them, and had been highly complimentary of the vampire’s work; judging by the faint movement of his arm that she could see from her current position, Paige was prepared to bet that Angel was sketching something at the moment.

However, a brief glimpse was all she had; a few seconds after her arrival, Angel’s silhouette had vanished from the window, the lights had gone off, and, a couple of minutes later, he was sitting in the passenger seat of the car, smiling slightly at her as he got in.  
“Hi,” he said casually, the gleam in his eyes as he looked at her making it clear that he was pleased to see her; a part of him still seemed to find it hard to smile at her, probably tracing back to the time when he grinned to bear his fangs before attacking his victims, so he always had to ‘smile’ with his eyes alone. “What’s up?”

Paige shrugged apologetically as she started driving once again, making sure that the road ahead was clear before she glanced back at Angel.

“Nothing major, really; we’re working on making P3 vamp-proof, and Piper thought you might have a few ideas on that front, so we’re all pretty much occupied,” she explained, glancing over at Angel with a sheepish grin. “Sorry about that; I was kinda hoping that we’d manage to have a dinner or something this time around, but this thing’ll probably take up most of our time.”

She knew that, as a vampire, Angel didn’t actually _need_ to eat- he’d mentioned a couple of times that his taste buds were kind of ‘dulled’- for lack of a better term- to normal human tastes, but she was still determined to convince him to at least _try_ and have a dinner date at some point. If they were going to do the couple thing, they were doing to do it _properly_ , regardless of Angel’s own particular ‘limitations’…

“Don’t worry about it,” Angel said casually, as they approached the junction for P3. “As I’ve told you before, I’m always happy to help; just sitting around in my apartment certain isn’t helping anybody.”

“Yeah, I know,” Paige said, shaking her head slightly as she began to slow down upon approaching the junction, grateful that the streets were quiet. “I just sometimes wish that…”

Then Paige rounded the corner in question- P3 was just a bit further down the street- and she stopped driving for a moment, her eyes falling on a truck in an adjacent loading area with two men standing around it.

All thoughts of what she wished had taken place right now were forgotten.

Two men who set off something almost _primal_ about Paige’s still fairly newly-acquired Whitelighter instincts (In her book, if she hadn’t had something like this for a year or more, it still classified as ‘new’).

If they weren’t demons of some kind, she didn’t know _what_ they were.

Glancing over at Angel, she wasn’t surprised to see that he seemed to feel the same way about the men; as a supernatural creature himself, he had often seemed to show a certain ‘awareness’ of the presence of supernatural creatures when the time came. Of course, in his case it was mostly his supernatural sense of smell that made it possible rather than some more subtle supernatural instinct

“What are they?” she asked, looking inquiringly at Angel; she may have been able to sense when something was evil, but Angel’s enhanced senses made him perfect to pick out exactly _what_ the something was, or at least give them a better idea what they were dealing with on short notice.

“Vampires,” Angel said, looking back at Paige with an inquiringly expression. “Do we investigate now, or would you prefer to get some back-up?”

For a moment, Paige left the sentence hanging- she knew how much Angel preferred it when the two of them were dealing with something alone, no matter what it was, but she liked seeing him squirm slightly- and then nodded.

Her sisters were just a simple yell away if they were needed in the end, but, right now, since Angel was _still_ denying her what she _really_ wanted in the way of ‘physical activity’, she’d make do with this.

“Let’s go,” she said casually, as she and Angel stepped out of the car and walked over to the truck, Paige making sure to lock the car before they walked up to the cab of the truck before them. As they walked up to the truck, its lights till out, they noticed the figure sitting in the truck’s driving seat as another vampire stood at the back of the truck with a large wooden box in his hand.

Paige recognised him at once; the last time she’d seen him, he’d been one of Spike’s minions, raiding the bar during the Battle of P3 for reasons she’d never been able to establish (She’d never actually asked Angel whether vampires could get drunk; given her own unwillingness to touch alcohol after that darker phase of her life, she would never again allow herself to be in a position where Angel would be required to drink alcohol, so it had never struck her as being important enough to ask).

Trying to conceal her initial unease- despite Angel’s lessons, vampires always made her feel a little uneasy- Paige just smiled and shook her head slightly as the vampire behind the truck stared back at her in what looked like shock mixed in with a slight degree of anger; Angel, dressed in his customary darker colours, had instinctively remained in the shadows. Some might have put it down as cowardliness, but Paige knew the truth; Angel had once admitted to her that, on some level, he enjoyed seeing her fight using skills he’d taught her, and he always gave her the chance to get her punches in before taking part himself.

“Every time I see you, you're stealing something,” she said pityingly, trying to sound casual as the vampire growled at her. “You really should speak with someone about this klepto issue; I’d volunteer, but I’m still only an assistant at work- not really authorised to do something like that- and I don’t think vampires are in my remit.”

No sooner had the sentence finished, than the truck's engine started. Instinctively, Paige turned to grab for the door handle, determined to do something about stopping this guy before he could get away…

Before she could reach it, however, the vampire she had been facing had already begun to run away from her, and the door had swung open, allowing the vampire to lash out at her arm with a powerful, rapid kick aimed directly for her wrist.

It might have hit her if she’d just been a witch with no training in the more physical side of combat with the forces of evil.

But Paige was a witch who’d received training from a vampire with two hundred and fifty years of experience at doing what he did best. As soon as he had come close enough to her, she grabbed the leg and turned his momentum against him, hauling him out of the cab and onto the ground.

As soon as he’d landed, the vampire had already started to get up from the pavement, only to result in his nose- still human, gratefully; their vampire faces made it _remarkably_ hard for Paige to get a decent blow in- being struck by Paige’s fist, sending him crashing back down to the ground. She vaguely registered someone standing up behind her- it sounded like there was a _third_ vampire in this stupid truck- but then she heard a low growl and a thud from behind her and allowed herself to focus in the vampire in front of her.

She may still be new to the supernatural world, but, as far as she was concerned, she knew one thing for sure; demon or vampire, Angel could handle himself in a fight with pretty much anything. Turning her attention back to the vampire before her- now staggering to his feet, but still disorientated from his earlier nose injury- she lashed out with a powerful kick to his stomach, knowing that her only chance of victory right now was to keep him disorientated. If it came down to a _fair_ fight, a vampire would always be able to outpace and overpower her, but, if she could keep it off-balance, she should have a chance to win this one on her own.

* * *

  
Behind Paige, Angel was currently struggling with the vampire that had been in the truck, the two of them rolling on the ground briefly where Angel had knocked it to the ground. Glancing off to the side, Angel noticed another vampire- the first one he’d seen, as he recalled- launching a kick in his direction.

Just in time, Angel launched himself back onto his feet as he forced the other vampire into the path of the kick, watching with grim satisfaction as the first vampire struck his ally in the back. Before either of them could realise what had just happened, Angel had grabbed the first vampire in a headlock, and, before the vampire could escape, had twisted its neck around a complete one hundred and eighty degrees. The vampire screamed in agony as Angel twisted, but the scream was sharply terminated as Angel rammed its neck into the nearby truck with such force that it severed the already-fragile spinal chord, causing the vampire to collapse into dust.

No sooner had the first one died than Angel found himself struggling with the other one, now back on his feet and evidently annoyed. For a moment, Angel was intending to just knock his new foe out, but then he changed his mind; whatever these vampires wanted with this truck, experience had long taught him that it would be best in the long term if he and Paige just killed them now, rather than try and keep them ‘prisoner’ to get more answers.

Fortunately, the means of doing so was close by. Vaulting into the back of the van next to them, Angel kicked out at an empty-looking box that was lying on the floor- only one box actually seemed to _contain_ anything, he noted- and watched with satisfaction as it shattered before him. Grabbing one of the larger pieces of material, he lunged towards the vampire in front of him- he’d forgotten for the moment to ‘pack’ his wrist-mounted stake launchers, thinking that he wouldn’t need them for this brief jaunt- and plunged it into the chest of the vampire that was just about to punch him in the face, watching with grim satisfaction as his foe turned to dust.

* * *

  
Back down on the street, Paige had, so far, managed to stay ahead of the vampire she’d ended up fighting. He was fast enough to be difficult, sure, but he didn’t see to be particularly old compared to some of the vampires she’d encountered to far. He also wasn’t a very skilledfighter, if his current performance was what he usually did in combat; his method of fighting just seemed to consist of punching at her a lot and hoping he connected.

Even after only a couple of months of lessons with Angel, Paige was _more_ than a match for this guy.

Of course, that wasn’t to say she was enjoying this fight; as far as she was concerned, it had gone on for more than enough by now. Since her initial surprise attack, the sucker hadn’t even been that much of a challenge; she just kept on hitting him and he was always too dazed to strike back effectively.

Time to end this.

Grabbing his arm as he tried to punch her again, Paige hauled him over her shoulder and through the nearby door of P3 (Fortunately kept unlocked; at least Piper wouldn’t be billing her and Angel for a new lock when this was over). As soon as the vampire was inside her sisters’ club, Paige heard a brief explosion, and then there was silence; Piper had, as expected, taken care of their unexpected ‘guest’.

Glancing over at the truck, Paige smiled as she saw Angel examining something in the truck as the others joined them from the club; Cole looked a bit flustered by what had just taken place, but, seeing as how he’d looked like that ever since he lost his powers, and thus lost the powers that he’d previously been able to contribute in the fight against evil, that was nothing new.

“What was _that_?” Phoebe asked, indicating the floor behind them in annoyance. “I just finished _dusting_ that, you know!”

“Well, there were these vamps outside the club…” Paige said, shrugging helplessly as she indicated the truck, before noticing Angel haul something out of the truck and carry it towards the others, a curious expression on his face as he studied the box in question.

“What’s that?” Leo asked, indicating the box in question.

“I don’t know…” Angel admitted, staring at it in confusion as he walked into P3, followed by his friends as he placed the box on a nearby table. “All I know for sure is that it was the only box in that truck with anything in it; the vampires must have wanted it for _something_ , but I just don’t know _what_.”

“What is it?” Phoebe said, looking in confusion at the box as she glanced over at Cole and Leo; seeing as Angel had no idea, their other two supernatural experts were the logical candidates right now.

“I’ve got no idea,” Cole said, looking over at Leo. “You?”

“Nothing,” Leo said, shaking his head apologetically before turning his attention back to the box. “Can it be opened?”

“Yeah,” Piper said, indicating something on the side of the box. “This looks like a release right… here…”

Curiously, Piper worked the latch, opening the box, but no sooner had she raised the lid, then a blue arm clad in elaborate, medieval-looking armour, apparently severed from the main body, leapt out of the box, grabbed her neck, and began to choke her.

“PIPER!” Leo yelled, lunging forward to grab the arm, followed closely by Angel and Paige. Between the four of them, they had soon torn the arm off Piper and stuffed it back into the box, Angel sealing the box shut once again as Paige and Leo made sure that Piper was all right, aside from her coughing and gasping for air.

“OK; _that_ was new,” Phoebe said, staring at the box in surprise. “We’ve never had to deal with an _arm_ before; what the hell _was_ that?”

“‘Hell’ may be the word,” Cole said, walking forward to look at Angel and Leo. “Are you two thinking what I’m thinking?”

Angel and Leo nodded grimly.

“Trust me, I wish we weren’t,” Leo said, as he looked over at the vampire. “Do you think…?”

“Oh, it’s her,” Angel said, nodding as he looked back at his friend, a gleam of fear in his eyes as he looked at the box. “Nobody else would be insane enough to try it.”

“Uh, can we have an explanation for those of us who _haven’t_ spent at least the last five decades in the supernatural creatures club?” Paige asked, looking anxiously between her brother-in-law, her boyfriend, and Cole.

The three men looked at each other for a time, and then Angel sighed and started to speak.

“It's a legend,” he explained, as Leo and Cole continued to glance nervously at the box, “way before my time, of a demon brought forth to rid the Earth of the plague of humanity.”

“Ah,” Piper said, looking up at the vampire as she continued to take deep, filling breaths. “That… _that_ doesn’t sound good.”

“It’s not,” Cole put in, taking up the story for Angel. “It was called ‘The Judge’, and his goal was simple; separate the righteous from the wicked... and to burn the righteous down.”

“No offence, but how’s an _arm_ that dangerous?” Phoebe interjected, indicating the box.

“True, but he’s not just an arm,” Leo explained, as he looked over at Phoebe. “He was so powerful that he couldn’t be killed, so, eventually, an army was sent against him. Most of them died, but finally they were able to dismember him; that couldn’t actually _kill_ him, but he was rendered powerless.”

Angel then began speaking once more. “The pieces were scattered, and buried in every corner of the Earth, but, if this arm’s here…”

He trailed off, as though unwilling to say what everyone else knew he was about to.

“All the other parts are being brought here,” Piper said, as she stared at the box that had come shockingly near to killing her. It was the only thing that made sense;

“By Drusilla,” Angel said. The sisters looked at him in shock, and Angel nodded regretfully. “I know it’s a stretch, but we _did_ never find out what happened to her after the Battle of P3. Besides, I know her; she's just crazy enough to do it.”

“To… what?” Phoebe asked, seeking clarification for the thought that was now lurking unpleasantly close to the front of her mind. “Reassemble the Judge?”

Angel could only nod. “And bring forth Armageddon for the human race.”


	15. Rings and Judgement

After Angel’s statement, there was silence for a moment, and then Piper spoke.

“We _need_ to get this out of town,” she said, indicating the box as she glanced over at Angel, Leo and Cole. “I take it this ‘Judge’ guy will only wake up when he’s _all_ together, right?”

“Exactly; our priority is to get at least _this_ piece out of the city and to a location that they’ll _never_ look for it,” Cole said, as he glanced over at Angel. “You think you can get it somewhere safe?”

Angel nodded grimly. “I’ve got a few places Spike and Dru didn’t know about back in the old days; it shouldn’t be too difficult to get it to one of them for safety,” he said, looking reassuringly at Leo. “Trust me; when I wanted to hide something, it _stayed_ hid-”

“Wait a minute; _you_ have to do this?” Paige interrupted, raising a hand and staring accusingly at Angel. “I mean, _hello_? You’ve got a couple of Whitelighters who can go pretty much _anywhere_ in a matter of _seconds_ standing in the room with you, remember? We can get this thing somewhere on the other side of the _planet_ in a matter of-”

“It wouldn’t work,” Leo interjected, shaking his head apologetically as he looked at his half-sister-in-law. “The Judge was such a powerful demon that, on some level, his parts are still trying to come together; even now, in some way, his arm is trying to rejoin the rest of him, even if it can’t actually walk or move around on its own. Any attempt to transport the arm or any of the other body parts magically- such as orbing- and the molecules in the arm would take advantage of their temporary ‘freedom’ and join up with the rest of the parts. It would be like sticking iron filings near a magnet; with the original iron bar, it’s too big for the magnet to do anything to it, but the filings themselves would be instantly pulled towards the magnet. We’d accomplish nothing but what we were actually trying to _stop_ if you or I took- or sent, in your case- the arm anywhere.”

“But…” Paige said, looking at Angel with a suddenly distraught expression on her face before she looked back at Leo. “Couldn’t I go with him on the trip?”

“Uh, and what if you’re needed back here?” Phoebe interjected, indicating herself and Piper in an exasperated manner. “It’s called the Power of _Three_ for a reason, Paige; we’re not talking the Power of _Two_ , you know! I tried that once with Prue when Piper was away, and it did _not_ go well; I’m not having a repeat performance, OK?”

Despite her wish that she could just get up and leave with Angel, Paige had to admit that she didn’t have the luxury of such an option right now; whatever she might have wished, as long as demons were active in San Francisco, the Power of Three _had_ to come first. Besides, in all fairness, she was having a hard enough time keeping her job together as it was; how could she explain an absence of the kind she’d probably have to take to accompany Angel?

Then again…

“How long would this take?” she asked, looking over at Angel hopefully, only for her face to fall as he shook his head at her secondary, unasked question; _Will you be back soon_?

“A few months, at least,” he said. Paige opened her mouth to speak, but Angel raised a hand to stop her. “Before you mention aeroplanes, I can’t fly; there's no sure way to guard against the daylight when I’m getting on and off, especially given our limited time frame to book seats. Boats are my only option if I’m going to survive getting rid of this thing.”

Noting the saddened expression on her face, Angel walked over to her and, reaching up, cupped her face gently in his left hand, stroking her cheek lightly with his thumb as he looked her in the eyes. “I don't like this any more than you do, Paige, but there's no other choice.”

For a moment, the two just looked at each other, Paige apparently struggling to control the tears that seemed to be threatening to break her self-control and Angel just unwilling to break this brief moment of contact. After a few moments, however, Paige stepped back and, swallowing slightly, glanced over at Piper and Phoebe.

“We got any ideas about when a ship’s leaving?” she asked, trying not to look at Angel as she spoke.

Phoebe shook her head. “Sorry, not yet; I’ll get right on it,” she said, glancing back at Piper as she inquiringly indicated the office where Piper kept a computer. As soon as her sister had nodded, Phoebe was heading towards the office, leaving Angel, Cole and Leo to re-seal the box containing the Judge’s arm as Angel made plans for where to take the arm.

Inwardly, however, Angel was already cursing his ill luck in having to do this. The only place he could think of where Spike and Drusilla would _never_ think to check was that cave he’d used as a secret ‘storehouse’ up in Nepal- he’d hidden a few works of art he’d acquired in his time as Angelus up in that cave for safe keeping, intending to sell them off at a later date if he’d ever needed money- and even in a best-case scenario, that would take him at _least_ six months to get there and back without risking death from the sunlight…

There was no other way to describe his situation; life could, officially, _suck_ at times, and, just when you thought you’d dealt with everything it could throw at you, it found something else to hit you with.

* * *

  
A couple of hours later, the moon still high in the sky above San Francisco, Angel and Paige stood at the docks, the box on Angel’s shoulder as he stood in front of the gangplank to the earliest ship Phoebe had been able to find. Angel had packed a few packages of blood that, he hoped, would be enough to keep him going for the month or so it would take him to reach the ship’s destination if he rationed them carefully; once he was back on dry land, he could raid some butchers’ to get new supplies.

As the vampire and the witch stood and stared at the gangplank that would soon separate them for the next few months, Angel set the box down in front of him and, taking a few steps back to study the gangplank, turned around to look at Paige. Walking over, he took her in his arms and kissed her softly on the forehead before stepping back to look at her, regret evident on his face.

“I should go the rest of the way alone,” he said simply, not trusting his voice to say much more as he stepped back from her.

“OK…” Paige whispered, her own voice sounding hoarse from the effort she was making not to cry. Steeling himself- it would be _far_ too easy for him to just give in and not leave at all, and he had to stay strong- Angel placed a reassuring hand on Paige’s shoulder as he looked at her.

“But I'll be back,” he said, a simple resolve in his gaze as he looked at her. “I _will_.”

“When?” Paige protested, as she stared back at Angel. She knew she was being somewhat… over-the-top, for lack of a better term… about their upcoming ‘separation’, but she could hardly help it if she’d grown… used to having Angel around. “Six months? A year? You don't know how long it's gonna take or if we'll even…”

Paige stopped herself before she could finish that sentence and looked down at the ground, unwilling to continue; she hated to remember that, in the end, she was still only mortal even with her powers.

“Hey…” Angel said, stepping forward again and raising her chin so she was looking at him once again. “If we'll even… what?”

“Well,” Paige said, as she looked back up at her boyfriend, her eyes glimmering slightly as she fought not to cry, “if you haven't noticed- which, given that you’re the one who _told_ me it in the first place is unlikely- seeing how we’re the Charmed Ones and all, normality is never going to be a factor for us again and there’s pretty much always _someone_ from the demon underworld who wants us dead-”

“ _Don't_ say that,” Angel interrupted, glaring at her with a resolved expression. “We'll be fine.”

“We don't _know_ that,” Paige retorted, glaring back at him.

Angel just sighed as he looked back at her; sometimes, for all the strength she’d shown in the few months that he’d known her, he sometimes forgot that Paige was still only in about her twenties.

“We _can't_ know, Paige,” he said, trying not to think about the fact that it was still an accurate statement in their line of ‘work’. “Nobody can. That's just the deal.”

For a moment, he hovered on the brink of uncertainty, as though trying to come to a decision of some kind, and then seemed to make up his mind and reached into his pocket.

“I have something for you,” he said, a slightly awkward expression on his face as he fingered something in the pocket. “I... I was going to give it to you earlier, but, well…”

Unwilling to remind her of the reason why they were there in the first place, Angel finally pulled out a small silver ring with an intricate design on it, in the shape of a heart ‘wearing’ a crown and held in two hands.

Paige could stare in surprise as she raised one to touch the small silver band held in her boyfriend’s hand.

“It's… beautiful,” she whispered softly, as she looked up at him in a quizzical manner, silently asking him why he was giving this to her.“My people- before I was changed,” Angel explained, answering Paige’s curious expression before he continued talking, “they exchanged this as a sign of devotion. It's a claddagh ring. The hands represent friendship, the crown represents loyalty... and the heart... Well, you know...”

If it was possible for someone who was technically dead- and, hence, lacking any circulation- to blush, Angel was doing it as he took her left hand and held it tenderly in his own, his eyes fixed on hers as he continued to speak.

“Wear it with the heart pointing towards you,” he said, holding her left hand in his right as he looked at her. “It means you belong to somebody. Like this.”

He showed her the ring he wore on his own left hand, and Paige’s eyes widened slightly as she saw the way Angel was wearing the ring.

 _Pointing inwards_ … she thought to herself as she looked back at him, her eyes widening as she took in what that meant. _He’s ‘declaring’ that he belongs to somebody… he ‘belongs’ to_ me…

Despite herself, Paige couldn’t help but smile as she reached out to gently touch the ring her boyfriend wore on his hand.

It may have been a ridiculously out-of-date tradition, but, right now, all Paige could think of was how sweet and incredible it was that, even in this small way, he was declaring that his heart _belonged_ to her… just as he’d captured hers in the last few months.

“Put it on,” Angel said to her softly, relaxing his grip on the ring as Paige took it between her right thumb and forefinger, staring in awe at the ring for a few moments before she looked back at Angel and held the ring out to him.

For a moment, Angel looked at her in confusion, but when he saw the inquiring, almost pleading look in her eyes, he smiled at her slightly, took the ring from her right hand even as he raised her left one, and slipped the claddagh ring onto her finger.

It was a small gesture, Paige knew, but given that their unorthodox- to say the least- relationship meant that them ever being in a situation where Angel would actually _need_ to put a ring on her finger weren’t likely- the chances of them dying before that were pretty good, she had to admit, even if she didn’t want to- she wanted to have at least this little ‘ceremony’ before he had to leave.

For a moment, the two of them just stood on the docks, Angel softly stroking Paige’s hand, unwilling to let it go, before Paige broke the silence with a brief sob.

“I don't want to do this…” she whispered, looking up at Angel with tears in the corners of her eyes.

“Me either,” Angel replied simply. To any outsider, his expression seemed totally neutral, but Paige could clearly see the pain in his eyes at the thought of what would have to be done to get rid of the Judge’s arm.

“So… don't _go_ ,” Paige whispered again, leaning in to wrap her arms around Angel as she kissed him once more, a not-so-small, selfish part of her begging him to just toss the arm into the sea and let it go its own way, hoping that for once in their screwed-up lives fate would cut them a break…

Then Angel pulled back from the kiss, looking at her with an uncertain, apologetic face, clearly torn between his desire to stay with her and his resolve to get rid of the arm.

“Paige…” he began, taking a deep breath as he looked at her. “I…”

Before he could get his next words out, two vampires suddenly leapt at them from nearby cargo netting, one throwing Paige off to the side as the other one crashed into Angel, lashing out at the vampire with a soul with a powerful punch.

Angel easily deflected the attack as he began to fight back- the vampire seemed to be strong but relatively inexperienced- but his opponent was still persistent enough to pose a challenge.

Plus, of course, there was the other problem of him being distracted by Paige’s progress against the vampire. She was holding her own, of course- managing to dodge her opponent’s more powerful blows while she lashed out with the occasion punch of her own. However, no matter how much training Angel tried to give her, it couldn’t alter the fact that Paige only possessed human-level strength and a couple of months of unarmed combat training. The vampire came close to grabbing her neck on more than one occasion, Paige only managing to escape his attack by orbing to a nearby location during the momentary pause between her noticing the attack and it making contact.

Then a blow glanced off Paige’s temple, sending her staggering dangerously close to the railing on the edge of the ocean, and Angel’s already-failing sense of self-control snapped.

“PAIGE!” he yelled, in horror. Fortunately, the yell served to distract both vampires, causing even Angel’s current opponent to stop fighting for a moment, puzzled as to what had prompted that yell.

Seizing his chance, Angel lashed out with a palm strike that caught his immediate opponent under the chin (And, judging by the cracking sound that resulted, broke more than a few teeth in his jaw), following it up with a kick to the throat that sent the vampire staggering back. As the vampire clutched at his bleeding mouth and badly-bruised throat, Angel leapt towards Paige and the other vampire, lashing out with a powerful pick to the back that rammed the vampire into the railing where Paige was still leaning.

“Angel!” Paige yelled, before he could launch another punch at the vampire in front of him. “The box!”

Spinning around, Angel’s eyes widened in horror as he saw a third vampire beginning to run away, the box containing the Judge’s arm clutched in his arms. A quick glance at Paige and the vampire was all Angel needed to do to confirm that Paige could handle the situation from here on in, and then he was charging after the third vampire, swiftly tackling him to the ground. Not only did the box slow his opponent down, but he seemed to be relatively young by vampire standards; probably no more than a century old at best.

 _This fight shouldn’t be too long_ … Angel thought to himself, as he hauled his foe back to his feet, the box discarded off to the side, and punched him hard in the chest, smiling in satisfaction as he heard a rib crack. He may not have a stake right now, but give him the chance to exert a decent amount of strength and it should be child’s play to finish the job…

Then he noticed some activity out of the corner of his eye, and swore; in all the chaos, he’d forgotten that there was still his original opponent to deal with. He may have practically crushed the other vampire’s larynx with that last attack, but that would only be a temporary problem for any vampire; they wouldn’t be able to speak for a while, but lacing the necessity of air did give them a _lot_ more options in a fight.

Then he heard a brief scream off to the side, and he was forced to rethink his immediate priorities.

The Judge was a problem, but, with the Power of Three against him, Angel had little doubt that the demon would be dealt with even if he _was_ assembled; after the likes of the Triad, one demon wasn’t all that difficult.

If Paige died now, the Power of Three would be gone, and they’d have _no_ chance to stop the Judge.

With that thought in mind, after delivering a final kick to his opponent, he turned around, ran back towards the railing, jumped over the metal bar, and dived into the water after her.

* * *

  
Glancing at his watch, Cole sighed in frustration as he looked back at the others. Following Angel and Paige’s departure, the rest of the team had returned to Halliwell Manor, in an attempt to prepare some kind of secondary plan for tackling the Judge in case something went wrong.

So far, nothing seemed to be going right.

“Paige should be back by _now_ ,” he groaned, as he looked over at where Piper and Phoebe were studying the Book of Shadows for any further information on the Judge, in case the worst came to the worst and they had to fight him; Leo had gone to ask the Elders for further information. “What’s taking her so long?”

“Maybe Paige just needed a few minutes to pull herself together?” Piper suggested, looking hopefully at her sister and Cole. “No pun intended about orbing there, by the way- I just mean… well, Angel and her _have_ been a couple for a while now; it’s only natural that-”

Before she could finish, Paige had suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, dripping wet and shivering slightly as she looked at her sisters.

“What _happened_?” Phoebe asked, looking anxiously at her drenched sister.

“D-Dru's guys ambushed u-us,” Paige said, her teeth chattering as she wrapped her arms around herself, grateful that she hadn’t chosen to wear her new leather jacket tonight. “They got the box.”

“Where's Angel?” Cole put in, looking inquiringly at Paige.

“H-He went to get some c-clothes,” Paige explained, indicating her drenched outfit. “I f-figured it’d be b-better to just get ch-changed here.”

“And you got like this because…?” Piper asked, waving her hand promptingly.

“We were th-thrown into the s- _sea_ ,” Paige retorted, glaring over at her sister in an exasperated manner before she headed towards the stairs down to the main house, evidently intending to change as soon as possible.

As soon as she’d gone, Leo appeared in the middle of the apartment, a worried look on his face.

“Problems, huh?” Piper said, looking anxiously at her husband.

Leo nodded.

“Nothing the Elders have on the Judge is good,” he said, as he looked over at Cole and Phoebe to make sure they were listening as well. “His touch can literally burn the humanity out of you. Only a true creature of evil can survive the process; no human ever has-”

“Can we just get to the important points?” Cole put in, glaring at Leo. “Specifically, whether or not we can stop this guy _without_ an army?”

Leo shook his head. “Unfortunately not; according to all sources, no weapon forged can kill him.” Piper opened her mouth to make a suggestion, but Leo shook his head. “No, magic isn’t all that effective either; he just absorbs spells and potions thrown at him as easily as he can absorb life force from his victims.”

“So… not very encouraging, huh?” Piper said, sighing as she looked over at her sisters. “If we could only stop them from assembling him…”

Ignoring Leo’s concerned expression- as far as he knew, Paige and Angel were still preparing to move the arm away from San Francisco that night- Cole continued. “We need to find his weak spots, and we need to figure out where they'd be keeping him.” He glanced over at Phoebe. “Think you could try scrying?”

Phoebe nodded. “Could take time, but I’ll manage,” she said thoughtfully. “Anything as powerful as this ‘Judge’ guy should be making waves in the supernatural world; all we’ve got to do is try and hope.”

Even as Phoebe looked around at her sister, lover and brother-in-law as she went to gather the material she’d need to scry, trying to remind herself of everything they’d defeated so far, she had to wonder if, this time, even all their power and experience would be enough to win.

Vampires and magic were one thing, but a demon who sucked the very humanity out of you and could kill you as soon as it looked at you?

That was a totally different league of problem as far as she could see…

* * *

  
Back in the warehouse where Spike and Drusilla had set up shop, Drusilla was standing at the top of the spiral staircase, looking on at the sight before her as she smiled in glee. Were it not for her well-developed form and the look of pure insanity in her eyes, she could have been mistaken for a child eagerly anticipating her Christmas presents as she went down the steps.

As the other vampires continued to celebrate around them, Drusilla made her way to the head of the table and began to dance there, slowly waltzing around as though she was dancing with an invisible partner. "Transylvanian Concubine", performed by Rasputina, played in the background, prompting another grin from the insane vampires.

She was so occupied with her dancing that she barely even noticed as, Spike casually rolled into the building, a large wooden box in his lap as he grinned over at her.

“Look what I have for you, ducks,” he said, smiling slightly as her as Drusilla looked quizzically over at him. Smiling as she saw the box in his lap, she grinned as she reached over to stroke his hair, planting a brief kiss on his forehead as she smiled at him.

“Ahh…” she said casually as she looked at the box, running her hand over it as she grinned gratefully. “The best is saved for last.”

With that, Drusilla took the box from him and handed it over to two of the nearby vampires. As soon as they had a firm grip on it, the vampires walked over to where the other boxes had been assembled, resulting in a vaguely body-shaped appearance. As Drusilla and Spike watched the sight before them, a broad grin on their faces, their minions placed the box in its place, followed closely by another minion planting the last remaining piece- the head- on the top of the ‘pile’ of boxes.

As soon as the last box was in place a bright light burst through the various cracks where the boxes connected, prompting a wide grin from Drusilla. As she watched the sight unfold before her, Drusilla smiled slightly, but it was a faint grin; even Spike, who knew her best, would have been hard-pressed to say whether she was actually happy at this turn of events or merely indifferent.

As soon as the glow had faded, leaving what had been several different boxes now one large box, the ‘lid’ opened like two large gates, revealing the blue-scaled, black-horned, armour-clad form of the Judge to step out and, slowly, carefully, open his eyes and stare at his surroundings.

Drusilla grinned as she looked at Spike, a broad grin on his face. “He's _perfect_ , my darling,” she said, once again sounding deceptively innocent; she once again sounded like a human thanking her lover for getting her a pet.

“It’s _just_ what I wanted!” Drusilla continued, reaching down to take his hand as she looked up at the Judge, who had by now stepped fully out of the box and was looking critically at his surroundings. His stance was slightly shaky, but the gaze he fixed on Drusilla was calm and focused, his voice displaying the authority that had made him an even more terrible opponent back in the day.

“You!” he said harshly.

“What's that, mate?” Spike asked, glancing over at the Judge where he sat beside Drusilla in his wheelchair.

“You two… _stink_ of humanity,” the Judge said, emphasising his words with a brief sniff before he continued to state at them. “You share affection and jealousy.”

“Yeah; what of it?” Spike asked, shrugging dismissively as he reached over to tap the Judge’s armoured chest. “Do I have to remind you that we're the ones who brought you here?”

Off to the side, Drusilla smiled politely at the Judge, as though he were a slightly tempermental old uncle who she was trying to win over, and indicated her guests with a broad sweep of her hand.

“Would you like a party favor?” she asked, her eyes fixed on the Judge as she spoke. The blue demon didn’t respond at first; his eyes quickly scanned the other vampires, until his eyes settled on Dalton- the unofficial ‘researcher’ for the current group of vampires- with a small grin.

“This one is full of feeling,” the Judge said, pointing at Dalton. “He reads. Bring him to me.”

Dalton nearly moved to run, but another vampire swiftly grabbed him, stopping any attempts at escape he might have made.

“What's with the bringing?” Spike put in, glaring critically at the Judge; he wasn’t going to have gone through all of this crap to bring back a _weak_ demon. “I thought you could just _zap_ people.”

“My full strength will return in time,” the Judge said, turning to glare at Spike with such intensity that the vampire would have stepped back slightly if he’d still had the use of his legs. “Until then... I need contact.”

Spike had to admit, that _did_ make sense.

He didn’t particularly like the fact that they couldn’t get started straight away, but, as the Judge stepped over to Dalton, one hand already raised to attack the other vampire, he had to admit that it made sense.

“No,” Dalton said in protest, his voice becoming ever louder as the Judge’s hand drew ever closer to his chest. “No! NO!”

Before Dalton could scream again, the Judge’s hand made contact with his chest, causing the vampire to start to smoke. As Drusilla watched gleefully, the Judge's hand begins to burn into Dalton, almost seeming to penetrate his very skin, before the vampire quickly combusted, disappearing in a flash of flame and smoke.

As she watched her former minion collapse to the ground in a pile of dust, Drusilla gasped gleefully and grinned at the Judge, clasping her hands before her as she stared at the powerful blue demon before her.

“Do it again!” she yelled, sounding like a child asking her parents if she could go on a fairground ride once again. “Do it again!”

In front of the two smiling vampires, his power already beginning to replenish itself, the Judge smiled as he felt his old power beginning to return.

This would be _very_ good…


	16. A Moment of Perfect Happiness

“Got it!” Phoebe said, punching the air in victory as the crystal she was using to scry for the Judge finally stopped on the map in a likely-looking location. She’d already had to put up with the crystal halting over smaller-level magic signals that were probably warlocks of some kind, but, right now, her immediate priority was to track down the large amount of vampires that Spike and Drusilla were bound to have available to them.

The warlocks were an issue, but right now, compared to the Judge, they were strictly small-fry.

The Halliwells could check back in on the warlocks later; they had an _immediate_ problem right now, and the sooner they got around to dealing with it, the better the chance that the situation wouldn’t manage to get any worse before .

“What is it?” Paige asked, from where she and Angel were sitting on the couch, the two taking a well-earned rest. After Angel had arrived at the mansion and told the full story about what had taken place at the docks, Piper had insisted that the two of them spend some time getting warm before doing anything. Angel had insisted that he didn’t need to get warm, but he’d conceded when he’d noticed Paige continuing to shiver slightly; he may not have needed to get warm himself, but he was perfectly OK with staying with Paige if she needed him.

“We’ve got a _serious_ concentration of vampires- to say nothing of some _seriously_ large demon mojo- in this… old factory, I think it is… near P3, along with something else that’s _seriously_ problematic,” Phoebe explained, noting with relief that Paige had stopped shivering quite so much as she had been earlier; at least they were all back to full health now.

“Nice job, Phoebe,” Cole said, as he walked down the stairs from where he’d been checking with Piper and Leo for any further progress. “So, all we need now is the battle-plan-”

“Already got one,” Paige said, looking reassuringly up at Cole. “Angel and I- he’s the best in a hand-to-hand situation and I can do the stealth thing pretty good- go to the factory and do recon, figure out how far they've gotten assembling the Judge.”

She turned to look at Phoebe and Cole, making sure that they understood what she was planning right now. “The rest of you check any places the boxes could be coming into town. Shipping yards, airports, anything. We need to stop them from getting all the boxes in one place, and we are _not_ going to commit the entire Power of Three to something that’s basically just recon work.”

“Ah,” Cole said, nodding thoughtfully as he turned Paige’ plan over in his mind before nodding. “Actually, that's quite a good plan.”

Paige shrugged casually as she walked over to a coathanger, shrugging on a leather jacket Angel had given her as she continued to talk to Phoebe. “This thing is nasty, and it's real, Phoebe; you and Piper are better at the actual _magic_ bit than me, but if Angel and I can do something about it, we’re doing it _now_. We can't wait for it to come get us; we need to know what we’re up against.”

“Yeah… knowing that’s always good,” Phoebe said, smiling in a slightly awkward manner as Paige and Angel headed out the door.

It was at moments like this that Phoebe fully realised how different Paige had become over the last few months since Angel had become a full-time ‘member’ of the Charmed Ones’ circle of allies. Even without Paige’s knowledge of unarmed combat, she seemed to have become more focused tan Phoebe could ever have imagined her new sister would turn out to be during that first actual meeting in the church (She generally didn’t count their initial meeting at Prue’s funeral or their vanquishing Shax as an actual meeting; the meeting at the church was the first time they’d actually ‘met’ face-to-face, knowing who each other was).

Personally, Phoebe thought it was an almost ‘inverse’ of Angel’s inferiority complex when it came to Paige; while Angel felt he didn’t deserve _Paige_ , on some level, Paige felt as though she needed to ‘prove’ that she could handle herself in Angel’s world of vampires and hand-to-hand combat, so she kept on trying to ‘train’ herself to cope better in the kind of situation Angel commonly ended up dealing with.

Oh, it wasn’t that she didn’t help her and Piper deal with the kind ofdemons _they’d_ been dealing with for the last three years or so; it was just that, when it came to dealing with vampires, she seemed to show _more_ focus than when it was magic-based demons.

Still, it wasn’t a major concern for Phoebe; given the amount of vampires and that they seemed to be dealing with since Angel showed up, Paige getting some practice in dealing with them was definitely a good thing.

And if it gave the Charmed Ones a new ally, and meant that Paige was happy while leaving her feeling less like a _replacement_ for Prue, Phoebe supposed that everything was fine the way it was.

If only Paige would be a bit more accepting towards Cole, everything would be right with the world…

* * *

  
A few minutes later- Paige had concluded that it would be easier to remain stealthy by orbing rather than by using a car- the witch/Whitelighter hybrid and her vampire boyfriend were sneaking quietly along an upper level of the warehouse that Phoebe had identified as Spike and Drusilla’s current hideaway.

Glancing down at the numerous vampires below them, Paige could barely stop herself from either trying to escape or orbing down into their midst and staking as many of them as she could. She knew this was only meant to be a reconnaisaince mission, but there were times when she just wished she’d acquired Prue’s _exact_ powers; at least with telekinesis she might be able to do some long-range damage- hurling stakes into the vampires’ chests from far away- before anybody knew what was happening.

She knew that wishing things to be different wouldn’t actually _do_ anything, but it didn’t change the fact that, ever since she started fighting alongside Angel, she’d come to hate the idea of _vampires_ more than she even hated the idea of _demons_ in general…

Then her eyes fell on the large blue figure clad in medieval armour standing in the middle of the room, and Paige swore under her breath, fear clenching in her chest as she reached over to place a hand on Angel’s shoulder, all thoughts of her hatred of vampires and demons briefly driven from her mind.

If that sucker wasn’t the Judge, she would be _very_ surprised.

She glanced over at Angel for a second opinion, only to see him staring down at the Judge, a wide-eyed look of horror as he stared at the demon…

Who, Paige noted as she glanced down, was looking right _back_ at them.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Angel said, as he turned to look back at Paige.

“Check,” Paige said, as she reached over to place a hand on his shoulder and orb him out…

Only for a bunch of vampires to suddenly sneak up behind the two of them and haul them apart!

 _SHIT_! Paige thought to herself, as she suddenly found herself a good few feet away from Angel, the vampires that had attacked them pinning their arms behind their backs.

Even if Paige managed to orb away, there was no guarantee that the vampires holding Angel prisoner wouldn’t just stake him before she could ‘summon’ him to her to get him out of harm’s way. The same applied for the reverse; even if she could ‘reverse-summon-orb’ him away from the vampires, they’d probably kill _her_ before she could escape herself.

Right now, as the two of them were marched down to the floor of the warehouse, all she could do was wait and hope that they’d have a better chance to escape soon.

* * *

  
A few moments later, Paige and Angel, still being held by a bunch of vampire who were clearly all tooeager to break their necks at the first sign of trouble, found themselves before Spike, Drusilla and the Judge; the vampires in particular looked particularly pleased at this new twist to the night's proceedings.

“Well, well,” Spike chuckled, looking at the witch and the vampire before him as he slouched back in his wheelchair in a relaxed manner. “Look what we have here. _Crashers_.”

“Oh, I'm sure our invitations just got lost in the mail, _Wheels_ ,” Paige retorted, glaring angrily back at the crippled vampire.

“It's _delicious_ ,” Drusilla put in, licking her fingers as though she was licking blood of them as she smiled at her sire. “I only dreamed you'd come.”

“Leave her alone; it’s me you want,” Angel stated, trying to sound casual even as he secretly strained against the vampires around him, silently cursing as he realised that nothing was happening; there were too many for him to throw them off, no matter how much older he was than them.

“Yeah, _that'll_ work,” Spike said, as he leaned forward to grin tauntingly at the former Angelus. “Now say 'pretty please',” he added, grinning wickedly at his old mentor as the Judge stepped forward.

For a moment, the Judge simply stared at the two figures before him, struggling desperately against their captors, head on one side as though he was contemplating a menu at a gourmet restaurant…

Then he pointed at Paige.

“The girl,” he said simply.“Chilling, isn't it?” Drusilla said, chuckling as she placed a hand on Spike’s shoulder as she stared at the suddenly horrified Paige. “She's so full of… good intentions.”

 _NO!_ Angel thought, as he realised what the Judge was about to do.

He’d come too far and helped Paige too much to see her die like _this_.

Straining against his captors, he managed to position himself briefly between the Judge and Paige, staring desperately at the blue-skinned demon before him.

“Take me!” he yelled, trying to ignore Paige’s cry of protest behind him; the Charmed Ones were needed in the world right now, but it would hardly miss a vampire cursed with a soul. “Take me instead of her!”

Off to the side, Angel cursed slightly as Spike raised his hand in a mocking manner, as though he was in school and pointing out a problem in a classmate’s work.

Even after nearly a century apart, his grandchilde could still never resist an opportunity to rub a victory over him in his face…

“Uh, you're not clear on the concept, pal,” he said, staring teasingly at Angel. “There _is_ no ‘instead’; just first and second.”

“And if _you_ go first,” Drusilla said, clicking her tongue in an almost tutting manner as she looked at her former sire, “you don't get to watch your little angel die.”

Even as Angel’s captors pulled him back, the Judge was already reaching for Paige. Desperately scanning his surroundings for a way out, all Angel could see were a bunch of TV screens held up to the ceiling by some chains (Probably installed by Spike so he could monitor video footage and learn more about his current opponents; Spike may not have been the most patient vampire in the world, but he understood the value of both knowing your enemy _and_ remaining up-to-date).

If he could just get the chance to knock those chains loose, it _might_ create the distraction they needed to get away…

Then he saw Paige tense herself, getting ready to attack as the Judge drew ever closer, and, once again, she became the more immediate focus of his attention.

“Don't touch him!” Angel yelled, praying she wouldn’t be desperate enough to try something like _that_ …

Then she kicked the Judge in the chest, and Angel swore even as the large blue demon was sent staggering back from the kick. Paige may have been receiving training from him for the last few weeks, but she still only had a human level of strength; making contact with the Judge could leave her in _serious_ trouble.

That was all the incentive Angel needed.

With a roar of rage that not even Angelus had possessed at his worst, Angel threw off his captors and lunged towards the chains, yanking them free just as the Judge staggered into a position directly under the monitors. As soon as the demon was in position, Angel released the chains, sending the monitors crashing down onto the Judge with such force that not only was the Judge sent staggering back as Spike and Drusilla beat a rapid retreat from the damage, but a hole was formed in the floor that seemed to lead down to the sewers.

 _They really did_ not _put much effort into making these things_ , Angel thought to himself, even as he heard the sound he’d come to recognise as Paige orbing…

Only to receive a nasty surprise when she reappeared right next to him, looking as exhausted as though she’d just run a marathon, and leaning against him as she panted heavily.

“Judge…” she gasped, indicating the demon as he began to get back to his feet, taking deep breaths as she tried to keep speaking. “Drained powers… can’t orb… need to rest… get us _out_ of here…”

Nodding grimly, Angel gathered Paige up in his arms, kicked out at a nearby vampire to send him staggering back towards his ‘colleagues’, and then dived into the hole in front of him.

As soon as his feet had made contact with the ground, Angel took a moment to make sure that Paige was alright, and then began to run down the tunnels, wishing, not for the first time, that his vampires powers _didn’t_ include a constantly-enhanced sense of smell; at times like this, it was a _definite_ curse.

Behind him, he heard a couple of faint splashes as two other vampires jumped down the hole after him. Trying to tune out the smell, Angel put on an extra burst of speed, spun around a corner, barely able to stop himself yelling out in relief as he saw a maintenance tunnel off to the side, apparently leading to an electric generator, complete with a door.

Taking a sharp right, Angel dived into the door, pulling it shut behind him as silently as he could before he relaxed his grip on Paige to try and help her get to her feet, praying that they’d manage to stay silent enough to evade detection. Given what he’d seen of the vampires Dru and Spike had gathered, none of them were much older than a hundred, so their senses probably weren’t as sharp as his, but all it took was one noise at the wrong time…

He heard the vampires move down the tunnel, _away_ from them, and sighed in relief.

They were safe.

“You OK?” he whispered to Paige, looking down in concern at the young witch he still held in his arms. She looked a bit less pale than she had up in the warehouse, and seemed to be less short of breath than she had been, but she was clearly still not back to full health yet.

“Yeah… I think so…” Paige said, still pausing for the occasional breath as she looked up at Angel. “Don’t think… I can orb yet… though.”

Slowly opening the door, Angel glanced around the sewer tunnel once more, and smiled slightly as he noticed a manhole cover nearby.

“Come on,” he said, indicating the manhole in question as he looked at Paige. “My apartment’s only a few minutes’ walk from here; we can hide out there and call the others to tell them about the situation when we’ve both had a time to recuperate.”

A small part of him taunted him with the knowledge that he could just call Leo for help and have them _both_ orb back to the Manor in a matter of minutes, but he shook it off; Leo was more useful with the other Halliwells right now, in case he managed to get any information from the Elders.

Besides, nothing was going to happen for _definite_ ; just because they were going to be under the same roof... at night... with a bed...

Internally, Angel cursed.

There were definitely times when Angel knew for a _fact_ that he was still the same person as Liam had been all those centuries ago.

* * *

  
A few moments later, the two of them had reached Angel’s apartment building, and were hurrying up the stairs as fast as possible; Paige was pretty much back at full health _physically_ , but her orbing abilities were still out of action, and neither of them wanted to risk a confrontation in their current state.

As soon as they entered the apartment where Angel lived, the vampire had slammed the door shut and turned on the lights, shrugging off his coat and laying it on a nearby chair; it had been raining on their way back, and both of them were practically soaked to the skin.

As Paige shrugged off her wet jacket and tossed it off to the side, Angel had already opened the nearby chest of drawers and picked out an old sweater for her to wear. Just as Paige was pulling off her T-shirt, however, she winced in pain, prompting a concerned glance from Angel.

“What?” he asked her, putting the sweater back in the drawer and turning to face her. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” Paige said, managing to sound as casual as she could, considering how drained she felt; hitting the Judge had taken a _lot_ out of her. “I… I just have a cut… or something…”

“Let me see,” Angel said, a concerned expression crossing his face. As Paige nodded her consent, clutching the sodden shirt to her front, leaving her back bare except for her bra strap, Angel walked back to the bed and sat down behind Paige. Reaching out, he tenderly traced the wound on her shoulder with his fingertips, noting that it already seemed to have faded; evidently not all of her natural powers had shut down on her when she’d been drained by the Judge.

“It's already closed,” he said, glancing back at her. “You're fine.”

“Thanks…” Paige replied, whispering slightly as she leaned back against Angel, briefly relaxing into the comfort of his presence as he raised his hands to her shoulders. For a time, the two of them just remained there in silence, but then Paige spoke.

“You almost went away today,” she said softly as she leaned against him, her mind flashing back to those brief moments at the docks when Angel had been about to leave the city.

Despite the severity of the situation currently facing them, she almost couldn’t bring herself to resent their failure; if they’d succeeded in getting rid of the Judge’s arm, she wouldn’t be here with Angel right now.

“We both did,” Angel replied simply.  
Those simple words weren’t much, but they were enough to really drive their current situation home to Paige.

With those simple words, Paige’s emotional walls finally came down slightly, and she allowed herself a small sob.

“Angel...” she said, as she turned to look at him, “I feel like… if I lost you...”

 _No_ , she told herself.

She _hadn’t_ lost him; that was all that mattered.

“You're right, though,” she said, as she turned her head slightly to look at him, unwilling to make him remove his hands from her shoulders. “We can't be sure of anything.”

“Shhh…” Angel whispered, pulling Paige slightly closer to him, wishing he could say something, _anything_ , to make her feel slightly better.

Then it came to him.

It probably wasn’t the most _perfect_ time to say it, but, in those brief moments on the docks and facing the Judge, when he thought he’d never be able to tell her the truth, his only regret was that she didn’t know for _certain_ how he felt about her.

He might as well remedy that _now_ ; who knew if they’d even have the chance later?

“I...” he began, swallowing slightly as he tried to say what he’d never been able to say before.

“You what?” Paige asked, looking at him curiously.

As he stared at the face of the beautiful witch who’d taken him into her heart, when he’d felt as though his demon’s crimes meant that he didn’t deserve to have her even _look_ at him, Angel’s few remaining doubts melted away.

“I love you,” he said softly, as he looked uncertainly at her, relieved beyond words when she just smiled slightly back at him, her eyes reflecting her joy at the words he had just spoken. “I try not to, but I can't stop.”

“Me too,” Paige replied, leaning back slightly so that her hair grazed the tip of Angel’s nose, allowing him to smell her familiar scent even more than usual. “I can't either.”

As she finished speaking, Paige turned around, leaned in and brushed her lips softly against Angel’s- a gentle, hesitant kiss, as if she was still afraid he’d pull away, or that this would turn out to only be a dream. When Angel’s head remained where it was, Paige leaned in and kissed him once more, her tongue softly slipping between his lips as the kiss intensified…

Then Angel pulled back, an awkward expression on his face as he looked at her once more.

“Paige, maybe we shouldn't...” he began, before she raised a hand to place a finger to his lips.

“Don't,” Paige whispered softly, as she leaned in towards Angel once again.

“Just kiss me…” she mumbled, before she slipped her tongue between his lips, taking care to avoid his fangs- even when his face was in human form, those particular teeth were still sharper than normal- as she deepened the kiss.

She knew what this would mean for their relationship, of course- she’d had to have been an _idiot_ not to know how this was going to turn out- but she didn’t care.

She’d waited too long for this.Paige understood Angel’s reasons for holding back, of course- it had been a long time since he’d last had sex, his crippling inferiority complex caused by his guilt over his past actions meant he rejected anything that might make him feel better, a part of him probably thought he didn’t _deserve_ her- but she was tired of it.

As far as she was concerned, he’d be great no matter what, he _deserved_ something that would stop him blaming himself for something he technically didn’t even do, and he _did_ deserve her.

She wanted him _now_.

For a brief time, the two of them just kissed, content to remain where they were for the moment, and Paige prepared to give Angel a bit of time to get his confidence back for the main show. It was only when Paige began to inch a hand towards the buttons on Angel’s shirt that the vampire pulled back, leaving Paige staring at him in confusion and hurt.

“Let me,” he whispered, as his fingers slid softly up her back until they reached her bra strap. Slightly breathless, Paige turned around slightly, apparently to give Angel easier access to the clasp, but really to try and limit what Angel could see at first. After nearly a hundred and fifty years with _regular_ access to Darla (And probably Drusilla, based on what Paige had managed to get out of Angel on those rare moments when he felt like sharing all the sordid details of his past), to say nothing of the random women Angelus must have had… encounters… with in his time, Angel must have seen his fair share of women, and…

Well, a part of Paige had to admit that she was afraid she… wouldn’t measure up to his expec-

Then the clasp was undone and, as one of Angel’s hands reached up to pull the straps off her shoulders, the other hand had reached around Paige to gently cup her right breast under the material as it began to hang loose, driving any fears of proving inadequate right out of Paige’s mind; all she could think about was how _good_ his hand felt.

Gasping slightly at the coolness of his hand on her breast, the young witch tilted her head back slightly, her nipple rapidly hardening both from desire and the light chill of Angel’s undead flesh against her skin. As her bra finally fell to the floor by the bed, Angel’s left hand reached up to repeat its counterpart’s actions, cupping her left breast. Soon, Angel was stroking his fingers over Paige’s breasts, teasing the nipples to hardness in a matter of moments.

They remained that way for a short while, Paige unwilling to push Angel too much- after nearly a century of apparently exiling himself from humanity, it was only natural he might be a bit… uncertain, she supposed- until he removed his hands from her breasts and began to lightly stroke his fingers up and her sides.

“Beautiful…” she vaguely heard Angel whisper, causing her to blush slightly. Even as the blood rushed to her cheeks, however, the vampire was already making his next move, as he leaned in closer to plant a soft kiss on the now-healed cut on her back.

Paige added a whole new definition of ‘ _on fire_ ’ to her vocabulary; even taking Angel’s cooler-than-normal body temperature into account, the thrill she’d felt in that brief moment of contact was _incredible_ …

Then Angel kissed her back again, and Paige’s mind could only focus on the delicate touch of his lips as he continued to plant gentle kisses on her back. As he continued to kiss gently at her back, Paige’s soon-to-be lover clasped her shoulders and gently pushed her forward, until she was lying on her stomach as he planted kisses along her spine, from the base of her skull to just above her jeans.

As she finally lay on the bed, Paige kicked off her shoes and swung her legs up from where she’d been sitting, laying them across Angel’s lap as she shifted her position slightly, smiling as she felt him pressing against her leg before Angel moved to give himself easier access.

As he crouched beside her, planting a final kiss on the base of her spine, Angel’s hands gripped Paige’s thighs and lifted her up slightly, allowing him to slip his hand underneath her and undo the button on her jeans. As he pulled down the zip, Angel began to gradually pull the jeans down over Paige’s legs. As he tossed the jeans to the floor, Angel reached up once more and hooked his fingers around the waistband of Paige’s panties, pulling them down as he leaned in once more, planting soft kisses around the swell of her buttocks, one hand briefly reaching between her legs to brush against her most sensitive area and prompt _another_ wave of arousal, before he slowly, almost torturingly, began to kiss his way down her legs.

“Oh God, Angel…” Paige breathed softly as Angel’s tongue tenderly licked the soles of her feet, paying particular attention to her big toes, causing her to squirm slightly at the slightly ticklish sensation.

“Over,” Angel said simply, pausing in what he was doing to look up at her. For a moment, Paige’s initial uncertainty was prominent in her mind once more- what if he didn’t like what he saw?- but, finally, desire overrode her doubts, and she turned over onto her back. As Angel’s lips made their way up her legs, Paige’s breathing quickened, unable to do anything but stare at Angel as he moved closer and closer to her thighs, and-

“Oh God… Oh God… Oh God…” she gasped, as Angel’s tongue finally reached the area she’d been longing for it to touch since he started. For a brief moment, Paige thought she was going to lose it right then, his tongue probing her thighs as though it was a finger…

Then, much to her frustration, Angel moved his lips away from between her thighs; judging by the small smirk on his face as he glanced up at her, he knew _exactly_ how much he was getting on her nerves at the moment, and he was loving every minute of it.

“You know…” Paige began, trying to stare crossly at Angel, but finding it increasingly hard to do as he did wonderful things to the soft expanse of her stomach, “if I… was in… your position… I’d- Oh _God_!” she yelled, as Angel’s lips reached her right breast and he began to suckle gently on the nipple, as his left hand reached up to tease and pluck at her left one.

Just as Paige had regained the ability to say more than ‘Oh God’, she found Angel’s lips pressed over her mouth once more, his body above hers as he knelt on the bed, his hands on her shoulders, and her hands instinctively reached up to undo the buttons on his shirt. As the last button came undone, Angel sat back, his legs spread across Paige’s thighs, as he shrugged his shirt off, leaving Paige to undo his trousers, even if she couldn’t actually _remove_ them yet.

As soon as Angel’s shirt hit the floor beside them, his trousers and boxers soon followed, yanked down by Paige’s eager hands. She barely had any time to glance at what she’d uncovered before he was positioned above her, tense between her legs.

Looking down at her, Angel smiled slightly at her, even as his eyes betrayed an uncertainty and fear as though he worried that Paige would turn him away at the last minute…

Noting his concern, Paige smiled up at his uncertainty. Reaching up with one hand, she took hold of Angel’s chin and pulled his mouth down to hers, tenderly massaging his lips for a moment before pulling back.

“I love you,” she whispered to him, smiling at him as his expression became slightly less anxious.

“I love you too,” Angel replied, the same whisper in his voice as his right hand reached up, brushing a loose strand of hair out of her face.

Grinning at him, Paige wrapped her legs around Angel’s waist, pulling him down towards her.

“Show me,” she said, staring directly into his eyes. “Please… show me.”

Angel nodded once, and then slowly slid into Paige, causing her to throw her head back, a joyful scream on her lips as she and Angel finally crossed the final boundary of their relationship, hitting their climax barely moments after they joined.

* * *

  
An hour later, exhausted after all they’d done in the intervening time, the two of them lay in each other’s arms, Paige draped over Angel’s chest, his right arm around her waist as his left hand idly stroked her right breast where it pressed against his chest in an almost unconscious action.

“Wow…” Paige whispered, as she looked up at him, a soft smile on her face, her eyes half closed despite the occasional ‘thrill’ of feeling Angel’s cold fingers on her breast. “That was… _incredible_ …”

“You were too,” Angel replied simply as he looked down at the woman he loved, a smile on his face. “Thank you.”

“No…” Paige said, looking up at Angel with a smile on her face. “Thank _you_. That was… I mean, _WOW_. I just…” she yawned slightly, but still tried to snuggle up to Angel. “I want to stay awake… so this can keep happening…"

Smiling affectionately at Paige, Angel kissed her tenderly on the forehead.

"Sleep,” he said simply. “We'll have another night like this one tomorrow…”

With that, the two of them settled down in bed and began to doze, one of Angel’s arms wrapped around Paige’s shoulders protectively as she snuggled closer to him. His low body temperature barely even registered to her now; as far as Paige was concerned, combined with the warmth of the sheet, Angel’s body beside her made her feel as though she was taking a cool dip in the sea on a hot day…

It was… _perfect_ , was the only word Angel could find that would do the moment justice.

For the first time since regaining his soul all those decades ago…

Here, in the arms of this beautiful, incredible woman, who had accepted him into her life and heart without question, even knowing what he’d done in his past, he actually felt like he had a chance at Heaven.

* * *

  
Later that night, Angel suddenly sat bolt upright in bed, unbearable pain tearing through his body as Paige lay beside him, her arm slung over the place where he had been lying only moments ago.

 _Oh God_ … Angel whispered in his mind, as he realised what the pain resembled. It had been nearly two hundred and fifty years since he’d last felt this way, but a millennium could go by and he’d still remember what it felt like.

His soul was being taken from him again.

And when that happened…

 _NO!_ Angel vowed mentally, as he hauled himself out of bed and pulled on his trousers, trying desperately to fight down the blinding pain that now consumed his being.

He may not be able to save Paige or the others from his demon in the long-term, but if he could just get away now, she might have a chance to survive…

Even as he shrugged his jacket and shirt on simultaneously, his shirt undone and his shoes untied, Angel was already staggering out of his apartment and down to the street, trying desperately to control the pain. Maybe… if he could just maintain enough control… focus hard enough on remaining in the body… he might manage to…

But it was all for nothing.

“ _PAIGE_!!” he screamed to the night sky, his fists clenched together so tightly that blood seemed to flow from his palms, as he felt the part of him that made him unique among vampires be torn from his body…

The youngest Charmed One was the last thought of the man who had loved her.


	17. Awakening

As he lay in the gutter, his body still shaking from the pain his self-proclaimed ‘better half’ had just been forced to endure, two things struck Angelus.

The first was that he was no longer being held ‘prisoner’- as he thought of it- by that accursed soul of his.

The second was that a woman dressed in some _very_ revealing clothing- evidently a prostitute of some kind, he thought to himself with a soft grin; it would be best to begin with somebody who _nobody_ would miss- was approaching him, concern on her face for this man who had just been screaming in agony mere moments ago.

“Hey…” the woman in question said, looking at his uncertainly as she bent down to look at him. “You okay? You want me to call 911?”

“Nope,” Angelus smiled, standing up rapidly as he looked reassuringly at the woman, revelling in his newly-regained ability to make his body do what _he_ wanted again at long last; he’d spent too long having to let the _soul_ do everything while he just raged in the back of the mind. “The pain is gone.”

“You sure?” the woman asked, concern in her voice as he turned around, as though moving to walk away, taking the opportunity to shift into his ‘game face’ while she couldn’t see him.

“Yeah,” he said, casually, as he turned around to glare at her, his fangs bared and a gleam in his eyes. The woman opened her mouth as though about to scream, but Angelus rapidly cut her off, grabbing her body and sinking his teeth into her neck.

Feeling like laughing for joy as he felt the blood flow down his throat- no more of that pathetic pig’s blood for _him_ now- Angelus drank greedily from the woman’s neck, the rich sweetness of the liquid revitalising him in a manner that he hadn’t been able to enjoy since his so-called ‘better half’ drank from that dead human in the stupid doughnut shop back in the seventies…

All too soon, the blood had all been drained, and the woman collapsed to the ground, leaving Angelus standing above her, staring casually down at the body before he tilted his head back and casually blew into the air, releasing the smoke that he’d just ‘swallowed’ along with the blood.

Looking back down at the body, he grinned casually.

“I feel just _fine_ ,” he said simply.

Then he reached down, picked up the body, and walked off to a nearby manhole cover to dump it somewhere out of the way; he may not be concerned about dealing with Paige and her sisters- after all, he _did_ know them pretty well- but he’d still prefer not to give her any hints that her precious ‘Angel’ wasn’t here any more until he was ready.

Right now, he had more important things to deal with, most of them involving a certain couple of vampires and a half-witch/half-whitelighter who made the soul happy and made him sick…

* * *

  
A few hours later, as Paige, her powers fully restored to her, walked up the steps leading to the main door of the manor, she couldn’t stop herself wondering what had actually _happened_ last night to make Angel… well, _leave_ like that.

She still wasn’t sure when it had happened; all she knew was that she’d fallen asleep with Angel’s arms wrapped around her, his hand still softly stroking her breast (A part of the experience that still gave her shivers; most of the other guys she’d slept with had only ever touched her breasts in an attempt to ‘cop a feel’, but Angel had just been content to lightly touch it like he was afraid it would vanish if he pressed too hard), and when she’d woken up…

Well, he wasn’t there.

No explanation, no warning, not even a little note to explain that he’d had to hurry off to try and find some new information about the Judge; he’d just… _not_ been there when she’d woken up.

OK, so it was always possible that he’d come up with an idea about how to deal with their current crisis and had wanted to leave before the trail grew cold, but he still could have at least left her a _note_ …

As soon as she pushed the door open, she heard the frustrated yelling of her younger older sister yelling at her prospective brother-in-law.

“Phoebe…” Cole said, sounding somewhat exasperated with his fiancé, as though the current argument had been going on for a while, “we can’t _afford_ to just head off to that factory because we haven’t _heard_ anything from Paige and Angel…”

“And what if they’ve been captured?” Phoebe retorted, sounding like she was glaring at Cole. “You know, Cole, maybe you’ve managed to become somewhat ‘pragmatic’ about danger over the _decades_ or so you’ve spent alive, but right now, we have a sister in trouble, and we are _going_ to find her!”

“I’m found,” Paige called out, as nonchalantly as she could, as she stepped into the main hall of the manor, smiling over at where her sisters, Leo and Cole were currently sitting in the main lounge.

“Paige!” Piper yelled, smiling broadly at her sister as she sat up to look at her younger sister with a broad smile on her face.

“We were _just_ going to go and look for you!” Phoebe said, smiling just as broadly as she walked over to hug Paige before glaring briefly at Cole. “Well, _some_ of us were anyway…”

Cole opened his mouth as though he was about to say something, but Leo beat him to it.

“Where’s Angel?” he asked, looking inquiringly at Paige.

“He didn't check in with you guys?” Paige asked, her eyes suddenly widening as she looked apprehensively at her family.

“Uh… no,” Piper said, looking uncertainly at her sister. “What happened; I thought you guys were checking out the warehouse together?”

“Well, we _were_ …” Paige said, already working out what to say and what to omit; she definitely was _not_ going to talk about her sex life with her sisters yet, to say nothing of talking about that when Leo and Cole were in the room as well. “We got there, and, well…”

“The Judge is active?” Leo asked, looking at Paige in barely-concealed terrified apprehension.

“Yeah,” Paige replied, nodding regretfully at her brother-in-law. “I hit him once, and I couldn’t orb for _hours_ ; Angel managed to get us out before the vampires could kill us, we hid in the sewers, and…”

“Why didn't you call?” Piper said, looking in confusion at her younger sister. “We had no idea where you _were_ ; we thought-”

“We… we… we got stuck in the sewer tunnels,” Paige said, cursing herself for the hesitation- she really should have come with a story that _avoided_ attracting too many questions that might include what she and Angel had… well, _done_ … last night- before continuing with, “and with the hiding, we just… well, split up.”

She shrugged slightly, trying to suggest a nonchalance that she in no way felt, before looking back at her sisters. “You guys haven’t heard from him?”

“Uh… would it help if I pointed out that he can _probably_ take care of himself?” Phoebe put in. “I mean, he _is_ over a century older than any of us, and from what we’ve gathered he spent at least the last hundred or so years pretty much by himself…”

“Yeah…” Paige said simply, nodding in an attempted casual manner, “I'm… well, I'm sure you're right.”

She tried not to think about the fact that, over the course of the aforementioned hundred years, Angel hadn’t really been _doing_ anything other than spending time alone and blaming himself for his crimes as Angelus rather than taking an active role in the fight against evil; he could still handle himself, and that was all that really mattered.

“OK then,” Piper said, standing up to look anxiously at the others. “Not meaning to belittle the problem of the missing vampire, but we’ve got to figure out a way to deal with the Judge. Anything else about your fight you can tell us?”

Paige shook her head. “Not much; as I said, I just… well, I kicked him and it was just like… like a sudden fever.”

Despite herself, Paige shuddered as she fully took in something that had been hovering on her peripheral consciousness up until this point, pushed aside by her more immediate concern of what had happened to Angel.

“If he'd got his hands on me…” she whispered, slightly shakily.

“In time, he won't need to,” Cole sighed, looking anxiously around at his friends. “The stronger he gets, he'll be able to reduce us to charcoal with a look.”

“Oh, thanks; _that’s_ encouraging,” Phoebe said, glaring slightly over at Cole. “We’ve got enough of a situation as it is, Cole; we do _not_ need you going all ‘gloom and doom’ on us as well, OK?”

“I’ll double-check with the Elders, see if they’ve got any other ideas about a weak spot for the Judge that we can exploit,” Leo said, standing up to look over at the others. “Piper, Paige, you two should get to work; the rest of us will be able to keep an eye on everything here.”

“Cole and I will see what we can do as far as research goes,” Phoebe confirmed, standing up and indicating herself and her boyfriend. “Maybe a couple of our witch-related contacts will be able to provide something new on the Judge?”

“Better than nothing,” Piper said, shrugging in a helpless manner as she headed for the door. “Come on, Paige, let’s go; we can search for Angel and worry about the Judge later.”

“Yeah…” Paige said, nodding wistfully as she stood up.

She may not like the idea of doing nothing while Angel was missing, but she wouldn’t do anybody any good if she just sat around looking for him. If Angel was safe, he’d show up; if not…

Well, she’d worry about that when the time came.

As soon as she and Piper had stepped out of the manor, Piper looked over at her sister inquiringly.

“Uh… not meaning to assume the worst, but… you don't think Angel would have gone after the Judge himself, do you?” she asked, looking curiously at Paige. “I mean, I know I don’t exactly _know_ Angel that well, but maybe he could have wanted to… _prove_ himself to certain people?”

Despite herself, Paige knew what Piper meant; she, Piper and Cole may have accepted Angel’s presence- Cole seeing him as a kindred spirit and Piper seeing him as the guy who made her new little sister happy- but Leo and Phoebe still sometimes found it hard to _totally_ trust the newest member of their little ‘group’.

Admittedly, in Phoebe’s case it more tied into the fact that she resented _Paige_ trusting Angel when the young half-Whitelighter still didn’t trust _Cole_ , but still…

After a moment’s pause, Paige shook her head.

“No, he wouldn’t do something like that,” she said, shaking her head as the two of them walked to their cars. “Maybe he just needed…”

She paused for a moment, and then shook her head. “I don't know. I just… I wish he'd _contact_ me.”

Piper sighed sympathetically and reached over to pat Paige sympathetically on the shoulder.

“Just give him a day or two; he’ll contact you,” she said sympathetically. “I mean, hey; Angel _loves_ you, Paige. He wouldn’t just run out on you.”

After a moment’s pause, Paige smiled gratefully over at her sister.

“Thanks,” she said simply, a soft smile on her face. She didn’t say anything more than that, but she didn’t need to; Piper understood what she meant, and that was enough.

Then Paige walked over to her green Volkswagen Beetle, stepped into the car, and drove away from the manor, trying to get her mind off her absent boyfriend and back on her job.

 _Angel can take care of himself_ , she told herself. _He’s over two hundred and fifty years old, for crying out loud; he’ll be_ fine

She knew that.

She just wanted to be the one who was helping to make sure that he was fine.

* * *

  
As he sat inside the warehouse that was rapidly becoming his home in San Francisco, Spike sulked in his chair as he stared at the sight before him; Drusilla, laid out on her back on the table that had once held the boxes containing the Judge’s body parts, staring blissfully up at the ceiling, a soft smile on her face.

If he’d had the use of his legs, Spike would have jumped up onto the table and begun to make mad passionate love to her.

As it was, all he could do was wheel over to her and smile affectionately.

“Are we feeling better, then?” he asked casually, raising one arm to learn nonchalantly against the table.

Staring up at the sky, Drusilla sighed wistfully as she glanced back over at Spike.

“I'm naming all the stars,” she told him simply.

“You can't _see_ the stars, love,” Spike said, looking casually at his lover. “That's the ceiling. Also… it's day.”

“I can see them,” Drusilla said casually. “But I've named them all the same name.”

Pausing for a moment, Drusilla glanced back in his direction, tilting her head. “And there's terrible confusion.”

“Did you see any further?” Spike asked, eagerly leaning forward to look at his lover. “Do you know what happens to Angel?”

“Well,” a shockingly familiar voice said from the other end of the factory, “he moves to New York and tries to fulfill that Broadway dream.”

 _What the sodding HELL_? Spike mused, spinning around on his wheelchair to see Angel standing in the door, idly tossing a cigarette off to the side as he walked nonchalantly into the factory.

“It's tough sledding,” Angel continued, apparently ignorant of the large, blue-skinned demon standing off to the side, “but one day he's working in the chorus when the big star twists her ankle.”

“You don't give up, do you?” Spike chuckled, looking critically at his former grandsire.

“What can I say?” Angel said, casually spreading his arms as he looked at Spike. “As long as people like you are walking- sorry, _rolling_ – the streets, I’ll be there.”

“Really?” Spike chuckled, noting the large blue form that had walked up behind the older vampire while he was talking. “You _might_ want to rethink that when you see what’s behind you.”

Angel had no sooner turned around than the Judge had stepped forward to place a hand on his chest, in a manner that had become familiar to Spike over the last few hours; Drusilla had eagerly gone out to acquire a few more humans to give the Judge that extra little boost…

“Hurts, doesn't it?” Spike asked, grinning as he learned back in his chair to watch as his grandsire burned up from the soul inside him…

“ _Well_ …” Angel said, looking casually over at Spike, showing a notable _lack_ of bursting into flames, “you know, it _does_ kind of itch a little.”

Spike blinked.

This was _not_ how things were meant to go…

“Don't just stand there!” he yelled, looking in frustration at the Judge. “Burn him already!”

“Maybe he's broken?” Angel said, grinning nonchalantly over at Spike.

“What the hell is going on?” Spike yelled in frustration as he looked back at Drusilla; he barely even registered the suddenly ecstatic expression on Drusilla’s face as she looked at her sire.

Then the Judge spoke.

“This one…” he said, removing his hand from Angel’s chest and looking back at the other two vampires, “cannot be burnt. He is clean.”

“ _Clean_?” Spike said, indicating Angel with a wave of his hand. “You mean, he's…”

“There is no humanity in him,” the Judge stated simply. With that said, he turned around and walked back to his corner, settling down in his earlier ‘meditation’ pose.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Angel chuckled, as he looked back at Spike.

 _No…_ Spike thought to himself, as he looked back at the older vampire. _Not Angel… not anymore_

“Angelus!” Drusilla said, his voice low an eager as she stared at her sire.

“Yeah, baby,” Angelus chuckled, giving her a brief wink as he grinned broadly at her. “I'm back.”

“Daddy’s home!” Drusilla yelled, jumping up and hugging him ecstatically. “The naughty soul is gone!”

“Yep; _that_ part of my life is over,” Angelus chuckled, as he walked over to strike a match on a table and light another cigarette. “It was a rough phase, but I got over it.”

“This is great!” Spike yelled, punching the air as he grinned broadly at his grandsire. “Scourge Reunited; this is _so_ great!”

“Everything in my head is singing!” Drusilla yelled, spinning around on the floor as Angelus laughed at the sight. “We're family again… We'll feed and we’ll play as we cut down the naughty angel who took my daddy!”

“Yeah,” Spike said, smirking slightly as he looked back at Angelus. “On that topic, gotta tell ya, it made me _sick_ to my sodding _stomach_ , seeing you as the little lap dog of the three witches.”

For a moment, as Angelus spun around to glare in Spike’s direction, Spike thought that he might just have overstepped his boundaries. As Angelus growled low in his throat, reaching over to grab Spike by the shirt, Sspike clenched one fist, preparing to lash out at his grandsire as soon as he could…

Then Angelus laughed, gave Spike a brief kiss on the forehead, and stepped back.

For reasons even _he_ couldn’t identify- maybe to release the brief fear he’d felt when he thought he was going to end up dead- Spike burst out laughing at that. Drusilla and Angelus followed his example for a moment, laughing along with him, until Dursilla calmed down enough to look inquiringly at Angelus.

“How did this happen?” she asked, indicating Angelus.

“Eh,” Angelus said, shrugging nonchalantly, “you wouldn't believe me if I told you.”

“Oh, who _cares_?” Spike said, grinning broadly as he indicated the three of them and the Judge. “What matters is now he's back! _Now_ it's four against… well, OK, _five_ ,” he admitted, looking slightly sheepishly at his grandsire.

“Eh, no need to worry about the guys; the Whitelighter’s a pacifist and the mortal formerly known as Belthazor couldn’t win a fight if his life depended on it now,” Angelus said, shrugging nonchalantly at his grand-childe’s ‘mistake’. “That leaves us with only the sisters to deal with; in which case, it’s three on four, where we _definitely_ have the advantage!”

“Good enough for me,” Spike said, smiling casually back at Angelus.

“So,” Drusilla asked, looking coyly at her sire, an almost seductive grin on her face, “you’ll be coming to help us destroy the world, then?”

“Yeah…” Angelus said, casually playing with his cigarette. “Destroying the world is _great_ …”

Tossing his cigarette onto the ground, he ground it under his heel as he glared over at the other two vampires. “However, I'm really more interested in taking the little half-Whitelighter and her family.”

“Well,” Spike pointed out, shrugging nonchalantly, “they’re _in_ the world, so that should work out fine for everybody.”

Sighing, Angelus glanced over at Spike and raised an enquiring eyebrow.

“Just give me tonight, mmm?” he asked, tilting his head to one side. “Trust me; by the time you go public, the young one won't be anything _resembling_ a threat. Without her…”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “No Power of Three, so no go on the ‘chance of stopping us’ front- not that there’s much of that right _now_ , I admit.”

Staring at his grandsire, Spike couldn’t stop himself from swallowing slightly.

Even after all this time, there was still something about Angelus’s sheer, honest fondness for torture that he’d never been able to get; he always preferred to make it quick and brutal himself.

“You've really got a yen to hurt this girl, haven't you?” he said, looking almost anxiously at Angelus.

“She made me feel like a _human being_ ,” Angelus stated, glaring critically at Spike. “That's not the kind of thing you just… _forgive_.”

As he turned around to head back out of the warehouse, he spat out that last word as though it was a curse, and Spike shuddered slightly.

Drusilla may be glad to have Angelus back, but he wasn’t entirely sure they wouldn’t have been better off with Angel still active.

At least he knew that Angel would only _kill_ him if things got ugly between them; there was no _telling_ what Angelus could take it into his mind to do if he wanted to take Spike out of the picture…

* * *

  
Even knowing the crisis they were currently facing, Paige couldn’t resist the nagging fear in the back of her head that drove her to return to the apartment where she’d spent the better part of the previous night. Even if Angel wasn’t in when she got there, it was always possible that she’d manage to find some clue that she’d missed in her rush to get back to the others in the morning…

As she pulled up outside the building, the early-evening darkness already beginning to settle over the city, she noted that the lights were still off; it looked like Angel wasn’t back yet. Swallowing anxiously, Paige got out, locked her car, and slowly walked up the stairs to the apartment, constantly dreading what she’d find once she actually got there…

Then she walked through the door to see Angel standing there, and all her old fears seemed to vanish.

“Angel!” she said, running over to give him a quick hug and a brief kiss on the lips.

“Hey,” her boyfriend replied, smiling casually at her.

“Oh my God!” Paige whispered, pulling back to take a better look at him. “I was so worried; where did you _go_?”

“I didn't mean to frighten you,” Angel replied, looking at her in a reassuring manner. “I’ve been around.”

“ _Around_?” Paige said, pulling back to stare at Angel incredulously. “You were freaking me out! You just… _disappeared_ on me!”

“What?” Angel said, shrugging casually as he looked at her, before glancing around his apartment and heading for the cabinet where Paige recalled he kept his weapons. “Like I’d really want to stick around after _that_.”

Paige blinked in shock.

“ _What_?” she said, looking incredulously at Angel; she couldn’t believe he’d just _said_ that to her. After all the times she’d worried that Angel would try to leave because he felt like he didn’t deserve her, he was acting as though what had happened last night meant _nothing_?

“You’ve got a _lot_ to learn about men, kiddo,” Angel continued, his voice as nonchalant as though he was just discussing the temperature of a cup of coffee as he opened the cabinet and picked out a small throwing axe. “Although I _guess_ you proved that last night.”

“What… what are you _saying_?” she said, staring at Angel with hurt-filled eyes. This couldn’t be happening… the Angel she loved _couldn’t_ be talking to her like this…

“Look, let's not make an issue out of it, OK?” Angel continued, slipping a couple of daggers into his coat pocket as he did so. “In fact, let's not talk about it at all. It happened; that’s it.”

Paige couldn’t believe what she was hearing; she’d fought _demons_ who treated her with more respect than Angel was treating her with right now.

“I… I don't understand,” she whispered, staring shakily at the vampire before her.

“Angel… was it me?” she said, in a low voice that was almost a whisper. “Was I not… good?”

Angel chuckled slightly as he continued to study the contents of his cabinet. “No, you were great. Really,” he said, in a voice that somehow managed to sound predominately harsh while still retaining a certain sincerity. “Thought you were a pro.”

 _Oh my God_ … Paige thought to herself, a part of her trying to deny what Angel had just said to her.

Forget being harsh, he was acting like she was a common _whore_ all of a sudden? This was _not_ the Angel she knew and loved!

“How can you _say_ this to me?” she asked,

“Lighten up,” Angel said, shrugging nonchalantly as he turned to look at her, closing the cabinet behind him. “It was a good time. It doesn't mean like we have to make a big deal of it all.”

“It _is_ a big deal!” Paige insisted, staring heartbrokenly at Angel.

It may not have been her _first_ time or anything like that, but what she’d experienced with Angel last night…

She couldn’t recall _ever_ feeling like that with her past lovers.

And Angel was acting like it was _nothing_?

“It's what?” Angel retorted, chuckling slightly as he looked back at her, a clearly sarcastic tone to his voice. “Bells ringing, fireworks, a dulcet choir of pretty little birdies? Come _on_ , Paige. It's not like I've never been there before!”

Walking over to her, he reached up as though he was about to pull her towards him to give her a kiss, but Paige instantly recoiled from his touch; after what he’d said to her, she didn’t want him anywhere _near_ her.

“Don't _touch_ me,” she said, staring shakily at him.

She may not understand what had happened to the man/vampire she’d loved, but, right now, she knew for a fact that she didn’t want him anywhere _near_ her…

Stepping back, Angel shook his finger at her in a pitying manner, shaking his head as he did so.

“I should've known you wouldn't be able to handle it,” he said simply.

With that, he turned around and began to walk towards the apartment door.

“Angel!” Paige called after him, praying as he stopped and turned to look at her that this last sentence would get through to him where nothing else had managed to do so up to this point…

“I love you,” she said softly, tears in her eyes.

Angel didn’t even seem that concerned; he just said “Love you too,” as though she’d just told him the sky was blue, and then turned back to the door. “I’ll call you,” he said, equally nonchalantly, as he reached out to open the door and walked out of the apartment.

As he walked out through the door, Paige couldn’t bring herself to do anything other than stare after him, trying to process what had just happened.

Last night… Angel had treated her as though he was almost afraid she’d throw him off out of disgust at his vampire nature half-way through their lovemaking, apparently unable to totally accept that Paige only cared about what he was _now_ , not what he was _then_ …

Today… he acted as though she was just something he’d had to do and wanted to get away from now that his ‘business’ was over.

 _What_ happened _to you, Angel?_ Paige thought tearfully to herself. _That_ can’t _be how you feel…_


	18. The Nature of the Curse

As she walked into the manor after a long day at P3- she’d eventually decided to leave things in the hands of her club manager for the night, unable to concentrate on her work with the threat of the Judge hanging over them- Piper had no sooner shut the door behind her then she had turned around to see Phoebe standing apologetically before her.

“Sorry, but Cole and I haven’t had any real luck,” Phoebe said, looking anxiously at Piper as she respond to the unanswered question on her sister’s face. “What about Leo? Have you heard from him?”

“Nope,” Piper said, shaking her head as she looked at her sister. “Then again, I doubt we’d get anything new from him; the Elders are probably just as stuck in a loop as every other source we’ve used to try and find out anything new about the Judge so far.”

“Lemme guess: 'no weapon forged’ once again in the latest attempt?” Phoebe asked dejectedly.

“Plus the whole 'it took an army' thing; don’t forget _that_ little nugget of hope,” Piper replied, rolling her eyes as she stared up at the ceiling. “ _God_ , where’s an army when you… need… one…”

As her voice trailed off, her head still leaning back to stare up at the ceiling, Phoebe looked anxiously at her sister.

“Uh… Piper?” She asked, uncertainly tapping her sister’s shoulder. “You OK?”

“Yeah…” Piper said, nodding thoughtfully as she lowered her head to look at her sister once again. “I _think_ I have an idea. It’s a long shot, but-”

Mid-sentence, the lights in the manor suddenly cut out on them, leaving the two Halliwells standing in darkness as they stared at each other.

“O-kaaaaay…” Phoebe muttered, anxiously looking at her sister as she unconsciously shifted into a combat stance, “ _now_ I'm getting a bit concerned; lights going out when we’re dealing with vampires _can’t_ be a good thing.”

“Yeah…” Piper muttered, glancing anxiously at her house once again. She knew logically that a power cut wasn’t something she should be seriously concerned about, but given that the last time she’d had no power in here had been because a demon was in the electricity supply, she felt that she had a right to feel _slightly_ worried. “What's going on?”

“Piper. Phoebe,” a voice said from behind them.

Instantly, the two witches spun around, Piper raising her hands to prepare to blow up the intruder, only to lower them when they realised who it was.

“Angel?” Phoebe said, looking in surprise at her youngest sister’s vampire boyfriend. “What the hell _happened_ to you; Paige told us you pretty much vanished after the confrontation with the Judge?”

“Yeah… I thought I had an idea, but it didn’t pan out,” Angel said, sounding apparently unconcerned about the whole thing. “What's up with the lights?”

“No idea,” Piper said, shrugging apologetically at the vampire. “We’re trying to come up with a new plan of attack for dealing with the Judge situation at the moment, but-”

“Forget about that now,” Angel said urgently, looking at Piper. “My _original_ idea didn’t work, but I found something else; I need to show it to you.”

“Show us?” Piper said, looking in confusion at Angel; what would he need to _show_ them that he couldn’t just _tell_ them about?

“Yeah,” Angel said, nodding casually at Phoebe. “Phoebe, could you get the others?”

“Sure thing,” Phoebe said, nodding as she hurried back towards the main room, hoping eagerly that, whatever her sister was planning- coupled with whatever Angel had discovered while he was away- it would be enough for them to triumph against this _particular_ adversary before it was too late…

* * *

  
Nobody noticed Cole standing at the top of the stairs, just around the corner. The former Belthazor had just been checking something in the Book of Shadows- he’d thought he had an idea about an old vanquishing spell he’d seen in there, but it hadn’t panned out- and had just been about to walk down the stairs when he’d heard Angel’s voice.

The worrying thing was that Cole hadn’t _sensed_ Angel there.

He’d never been able to pinpoint exactly _what_ it was, but even since he’d become a human, something about Angel’s presence seemed to cause his old demon instincts to… ‘tingle’, for lack of a better term.

He and Angel had talked about it once, Angel confessing that he was similarly able to sense Cole’s presence, and the two had concluded in the end that it was probably something about them being the only two demons with souls, thus leaving them somewhat ‘attuned’ to each other. It was never anything major- if one of them was present without the other one knowing it, the other just had some slight feeling of deja-vu mixed with a dash of the same feeling you get when you recognise a face without being able to put a name to it- so they’d never mentioned it to anyone else, but Cole had come to recognise it even more since losing his _other_ powers…

And he wasn’t feeling it any more.

 _Shit_ , Cole muttered to himself, as he stuck a hand in his pocket to pull out the crucifix he’d taken to carrying there ever since Angel had come into their lives.

If he wasn’t sensing Angel’s presence despite the fact that the vampire was standing right in front of him, there were only a limited number of reasons for such a thing to take place, and _none_ of them boded well for him and the Charmed Ones…

* * *

  
“Piper,” Angel said, looking inquiringly at the eldest sister. “Could you come over here?”

“Uh… OK…” Piper said, a slightly uncertain tone in her voice at that comment. Quite frankly, if it wasn’t for the fact that she knew Angel was _totally_ in love with Paige, she might have been worried that he was trying to hit on her…

But this was _Angel_ , the vampire who’d turned his back on his baser instincts for over a century; hell, he’d staked his own _sire_ for their sakes.

He’d _earned_ their trust, surely; Piper had no _reason_ to be this uncertain around him…

“PIPER!” a voice yelled from behind her. Piper had only just spun around to see who was talking- she vaguely registered Cole running towards her, a crucifix clutched in his hand- when she felt something grab her throat and pull her rapidly backwards, a low growl sounding in one ear as she realised the horrible truth of what had just happened.

She was being held by a demon, in a position which could allow him to _easily_ break her neck if he wanted to…

And the demon was _Angel_?

“PIPER!” Phoebe’s voice screamed from behind Cole; Piper wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or terrified as she saw her sister hurry out from the main room to stand behind Cole.

“What’s- _ANGEL_?” Leo yelled, following Phoebe out of the room only for his eyes to widen in horror as he saw his wife held in a position that was clearly intended to break her neck.

“You _don’t_ want to do that,” Cole growled, ignoring the new arrivals as he continued to brandish the crucifix before him as he stared at ‘Angel’.

“Oh, I _really_ think I do,” the vampire retorted, grinning casually as he stared at Cole and Phoebe

“Angel…” Piper protested, trying to get through to the vampire who (Almost literally) held her life in his hands.

Cole shook his head.

“He's not Angel any more, Piper,” the former Belthazor said, glaring critically at the vampire once known as the Scourge of Europe. “Are you?”

* * *

  
“Wrong,” Angelus chuckled; strictly speaking, what he was about to say wasn’t _totally_ true, but it had enough of the truth in it for him.

“I _am_ Angel,” he stated once more, tightening his grip on Piper’s neck as he bared his fangs at his ‘better half’s’ allies. “I just woke up at last and decided to act the way vampires _should_ act.”

He smirked slightly at the shocked-yet-confused expression on Phoebe’s face, but he kept his mind focused on the more immediate matters of taunting his soul’s former ‘allies’.

“On that topic,” he continued, a small smirk as he looked at the witch, the whitelighter and the ex-demon-assassin before him, “now that I’m back in action, I have a little ‘message’ for Paige that I want you all to deliver.”

“Why don't you give it to me yourself?” a voice suddenly said from behind him, just at the door that he’d so recently entered by.

His eyes widening slightly in surprise- evidently, their earlier encounterhadn’t delayed her for as long as he’d expected- Angelus spun around, Piper’s throat still clutched in his hand, to smirk casually at Paige Matthews as she stood in the open doorway before him, her fists clenched and shoulders tensed, clearly ready to fight.

As he took in Paige standing before him, her resolved glare marred slightly by the faint trace of tears around her eyes, Angelus chuckled casually.

Maybe his _initial_ plan to take her out- separate her from her family while he killed them off one-by-one, leaving their bodies for her to find- hadn’t worked out, but in some ways, this had the personal touch that the original plan had been missing.

Specifically, this time around he could taunt her face-to-face and _see_ her reaction to his ‘new’ attitude (Admittedly, it wasn’t _exactly_ new- _he_ was still acting like he’d always acted, it was just that he was at last being allowed out from where he’d been trapped ‘underneath’ his soul for so long- but she thought it was still Angel, so the point still stood).

“Well, it's not really the kind of message you _tell_ ,” he explained, a broad grin on his face, exposing his fangs as he shifted into his vampire face while continuing to stare at the young half-Whitelighter before him. “It sort of involves finding the bodies of all your family and friends… right up to the point before I kill you myself.”

Tightening his grip on Piper, Angelus chuckled as she let out another pained yelp once again. Grinning broadly, he glanced down at the shaken witch in his arms, before looking back up at Paige, baring his fangs.

“You know,” he said, as though he was simply discussing a movie the two of them had seen recently, his vampiric visage inspiring fear in Paige for the first time since she’d learned the truth about him, “if I knew you guys would be _this_ easy to put down, I’d have down this _long_ ago.”

* * *

  
“No…” Paige whispered, shaking her head as she stared at Angel in horror, trying to ignore the pain in her heart at his cold attitude toward her; she’d forced herself to get over her initial shock at her boyfriend’s actions to try and find out what the hell had _happened_ to him, but, right now, she was starting to wish she’d just stayed in bed rather than allowing herself to be hurt even _more_ as she realised how much the vampire had changed. “This _can't_ be you…”“Gee, we already _covered_ that subject,” the vampire said, rolling his eyes as he continued to squeeze Piper’s throat. “I’m still _me_ , I assure you; all this is _purely_ my decision.”

“Angel,” Paige said, staring pleadingly at the vampire she’d come to love, “there must be _some_ part of you inside that still remembers who you _are_ …”

“Dream on, little girl,” Angelus chuckled, staring maliciously at her. He may admire her current backbone- in the past, some of the girls he’d used this act on would be total wrecks by this point, and in her case it hadn’t even been an actual _act_ , as much as he hated to admit it to himself- but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t enjoy tormenting her to death. “Your boyfriend is dead, and, sooner or later, you're all gonna join him.”

“Leave Piper alone,” Paige retorted, glaring at him as she took a step forward, “and deal with _me_.”

For a moment, Angel almost seemed to be pouting as he looked at her; Paige wasn’t sure if she should feel insulted at the fact that he actually seemed to _not_ be interested in trading Piper for her.

“But she's so cute,” he said, almost pleadingly, as he reached up to pinch Piper’s cheek, grinning slightly back at Paige as her older sister winced.

“And helpless, of course,” he added, almost as an afterthought. “ _Really_ a turn-on…”

Before Paige could reply to that, Angel suddenly reeled backwards in agony, releasing his grip on Piper as he clutched at the suddenly-smoking back of his head. As he stumbled back, however, he clearly still retained enough thought to deal with any immediate threats; before Piper could take advantage of her new freedom, Angel had grabbed her shoulder and hurled her into Phoebe, sending the two sisters collapsing to the ground.

Cole and Leo instantly moved forward to try and attack their old ‘friend’, but neither of them were a match for Angel’s enhanced speed; reaching casually over, Angel grabbed their heads and hit them against each other like a pair of cymbols, sending the two men collapsing to ground in a daze. As soon as they were down, Angel spun around to grab Paige by the shoulders, the young witch/whitelighter hybrid unable to stop a momentary gasp of fear as she looked at the face of the man she loved.

Even when she’d been looking directly at him in his vampire face, Paige had never been more scared of him than she was at this moment.

The emptiness in Angel’s eyes… eyes which had looked at her with so much warmth mere hours ago…

It was more terrifying than anything she’d fought in the months since she’d become a Charmed One.

“Things are about to get _very_ interesting,” Angel whispered into her ear, a broad smirk on his face as he pulled back to look at her. For a moment, his lips pressed against Paige’s once again, the familiar soothing coolness combined with an almost animalistic desire simultaneously warming Paige’s heart and freezing her soul…

Then Angel stepped back, shoved her into a wall, and turned around to hurry out of the mansion, leaving Paige to stare numbly ahead of her as Piper and Phoebe got back to their feet

“Paige?” Piper asked, tenderly touching her still-bruised throat as she looked at her sister. “You… OK? Paige?”

Paige didn’t answer.

She couldn’t.

She just stood there, staring incredulously at the door to the manor before her, unable to believe what had just taken place…

 _Angel_ had tried to _kill_ them…

* * *

  
“OK, can we just sit down and _look_ at the situation here for a moment?” Phoebe interjected, breaking the silence that had settled over the Charmed One’s after ‘Angel’s’ abrupt departure from the manor. “Am I imaging things, or does Angel appear to have gone evil once more?”

“He’s evil,” Cole muttered grimly, looking over at the others. “Either that was just a duplicate- which I doubt; there’s no way to create a ‘clone’ like that in this kind of time frame- or his soul’s been extracted from his body and the demon’s been allowed to take control once more.”

“Uh… pardon?” Paige asked, looking sharply over at Cole. “How do _you_ know that his soul’s gone?”

“I can… well, Angel and I never mentioned it to any of you- it was never strong enough to be of much use in a fight of any kind- but we’ve always had a certain ‘sense’ of each other’s presence ever since we first met,” Cole explained, looking around at his friends in a slightly awkward manner. “We generally figured that, since we’re the only _demons_ with souls in existence, some part of our natures was just kind of… ‘calling’ to the other whenever we were close to each other, for lack of a better explanation…”

He shrugged slightly as he took in their varied expressions. “Anyway, the important thing is that I couldn’t sense the soul when he was here right now; whatever’s happened to Angel, his soul is… well, it isn’t there any more.”

“Wait a minute; you mean his soul’s actually _gone_?” Piper put in, looking incredulously at Cole and Leo. “I thought the gypsies who gave Angel his soul meant for him to experience _eternal_ torment because of it; how could there be something about the curse that would cause it to just be… _removed_ like that?”

“I’ll check with the Elders,” Leo put in from where he’d been standing off to the side, standing up and looking reassuringly over at Paige. “Trust me; if they know _anything_ about why Angel’s started acting like this, I’ll find out what it is.”

“Right,” Piper said, nodding in agreement at her husband as she glanced at the clock, noting with relief that it was only about nine; the sooner she attended to this the better. “I’ll give Darryl a call and let him know what’s happening; with Angel…”

Looking over at Paige, she paused for a moment, as though uncertain how to phrase what she had to say, before she finally sighed and continued. “Well, with Angel… out of the picture, we’ll need all the help we can get.”

“Yeah…” Paige said, nodding slightly as she looked back at the door where the vampire who had so recently been her lover had just departed.

Right now, all she could do was wait and pray that, whatever had taken his soul away from him, it was something that they would be able to reverse.

* * *

  
About an hour later, however, none of them were any further along in their attempts to find answers than they had been in the past. Piper had spent a significant amount of time on the computer, scanning information as though she was looking for something, while Phoebe and Cole tried to find any useful information they could use to deal with the Judge, but so far all of them were coming up empty.

As for Paige… right now, she could barely even bring herself to get up from the chair which she’d slumped into after the other started to look for more information. None of the others had asked for her help- they appreciated that she needed some time to get her head around what had just happened to them- but, personally speaking, Piper was starting to get concerned about her sister.

If they didn’t figure out what the _hell_ had happened to Angel soon, she wasn’t sure _how_ Paige was going to be any use to them in a combat situation; the poor girl seemed to have been shaken to her very core by what had happened to Angel…

Just as that thought crossed her mind, there was a brief glow in the middle of the room, and Leo appeared, a grim expression on his face.

“Well?” Paige asked, instantly standing up and looking anxiously over at her Whitelighter brother-in-law as he stood in the middle of the room. “Did the Elders have anything?”

Leo took a deep breath, and then sighed and spoke.

“Yeah, they did,” he said, as he looked at his friends and family, a regretful expression on his face as he spoke. “It turns that it was… well, it was the curse that did this.”

“The one that gave Angel back his soul?” Piper asked, looking anxiously at her husband for clarification.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Leo said, swallowing anxiously as he looked over at Paige. “Essentially, the curse had a fundamental flaw in it, caused by the… well, the best term for it is the ‘inadequacies’ of the brand of magic that the gypsies were using.”

“Inadequacies?” Phoebe said, looking in confusion at Leo. “They could put a soul in a _dead_ body, and they had magical _inadequacies_? How’s _that_ work?”

Leo sighed in frustration as he looked back at the sisters. “Well, quite frankly, the gypsies were amateurs who used a rather basic, ancient form of magic, where the spells have to have a loophole or they don’t work properly. It’s rather like the magic that inspired so many of the spells you read about in fairy tales, really; the poisoned apple that ‘killed’ Snow White was only effective because it had the antidote of love’s first kiss, Rumplestiltskin could be convinced to break off his deal with the new Queen if someone knew his name, Sleeping Beauty could only be woken up after a hundred years-”

“OK, so a bunch of gypsies used a fairy-tale style curse that requires there to be a weak link in the chain to make the whole thing work; what does this have to do with what’s happened to _Angel_?” Piper interrupted, looking impatiently at her husband as she indicated the anxious-looking Paige, who was looking at Leo as though she was about to cry if he didn’t put her fears to rest. “I mean, what kind of loophole _was_ it, anyway?”

“The gypsies figured that, if they had to include a loophole in the curse, they’d make it a loophole that would encourage them all the more to ensure that Angel suffered for what he’d done to them as Angelus,” Leo explained, as he looked around at Cole and the Charmed Ones. “As a result, the loophole in Angel’s curse was something that meant keeping him _un_ happy would be in their ‘best interests’, unfortunately for us. Should Angel experience so much as one moment of true happiness, just _one_ moment where the soul that they restored to him no longer plagued his thoughts with guilt and grief over what he’d done without it…”

Leo sighed again, concern evident on his face as he looked over at Paige, and then, finally, finished his sentence.

“…that soul is taken from him, and he reverts back to Angelus.”

Paige’s eyes widened in horror at what her brother-in-law had just told her.

What made it even worse, however, was she knew there was only one event that had taken place last night that could _possibly_ have caused that ‘perfect happiness’ in question.

Call her arrogant, but Paige strongly doubted Angel had been even _slightly_ happy about the Judge being activated…

Which meant that when he’d had sex with her…

“Oh God…” Paige whispered, looking over at her sisters in horror. “It was _me_ …”

“What?” Piper said, looking over in confusion at Paige. “What was you?”

“I think…” Paige said, looking slightly awkwardly at her family before she finished speaking. “I think that _I_ triggered the clause…”

“What?” Phoebe said, looking in confusion at her sister. “Paige, we’ve got an indestructible demon capable of sucking the humanity out of people walking about, having been resurrected by two vampires who were created and/or trained _by_ Angel back when he was evil to be pretty much the worst that vampires can be; no offence, but what could you have done to make him _that_ happy at a time like this?”

Paige’s embarrassed expression was all any of them needed to guess what had taken place.

“Oh,” Leo said simply.

“OK, well, now that we’ve got _that_ out of the way, any chance we could just get on with the main issue of getting the soul _back_?” Phoebe interjected, standing up and clasping her hands together in a determined manner, trying not to look at her clearly somewhat embarrassed sister. “I for one do _not_ want to have to deal with the vampire who terrorised Europe for over a hundred and fifty years; I’ll work on the spell-”

“You can’t,” Leo interrupted.

“What?” Piper said, looking in confusion at her husband. “What do you _mean_ , we can’t?”

“Piper, re-ensouling Angel isn’t the kind of spell you can just make up at a moment’s notice,” Leo explained, looking apologetically at the sisters. “You’d be attempting to alter a fundamental rule of the magical world on a long-term; vampires are not _meant_ to have souls under _any_ circumstances-”

“We’re _witches_ , Leo; we rewrite the fundamental rules of the world on a _regular_ basis!” Piper retorted, standing up to look Leo directly in the eyes. “You’re telling me that I can freeze _time_ on a regular basis, and yet I can’t stick a soul into some dead guy-”

“Freezing time is easy; you’re only doing it on a _short-term_ basis in a specific area,” Leo stated, looking grimly at Piper as he continued. “Altering the fundamental rules of magic to give Angel back his soul on a permanent basis is a totally different matter; it has to be long-term, and all the spells you’ve ever performed were only ever intended to change something in your vicinity in a matter of seconds; minutes, at best! You’d need to use ancient, primal magic to restore Angel’s soul to his body on any kind of permanent basis, and that kind of magic isn’t something you have access to.”

“There has to be _some_ way to get his soul back!” Paige protested, looking desperately at Leo. “There’s _always_ a way!”

“Paige, the only people who even _use_ that kind of magic any more are the gypsy wiccans, and they’d fallen out of contact with the Elders centuries before Angel was cursed in the first place,” Leo explained, regret clear on his face as he looked at Paige. “I’ve asked the Elders to do what they can about finding some of the surviving clan members, but I really wouldn’t hold out much hope; they had little interest in Whitelighters even before the other members of the Scourge killed most of their clan, and after so few of them survived that particular incident, they’ve made it clear that they’d prefer to manage on their own rather than rely on people who’ve failed them already.”

“So… there’s _nothing_ we can do?” Paige said, her voice suddenly going from loud and angry to low and shaken as she looked at her brother-in-law. “Angel’s… gone?”

Leo could only nod.

“Oh god…” Paige whispered softly as she sank back down onto the sofa, her head in her hands as she stared listlessly ahead of herself. “He’s gone… he’s gone and it’s my fault… it’s all my fault…”

“Paige, you _need_ to pull yourself together; blaming _yourself_ for this mess _isn’t_ going to solve anything!” Piper said, as she walked over to grab her sister’s shoulders and look her new half-sister directly in the eyes. “The key thing you need to understand right now is simple; what has happened to Angel was _not_ your fault, OK?”

“I _triggered_ the clause; how is that _not_ my fault?” Paige retorted, glaring over at her sister with tears trickling down her cheeks.

“Did you do it _deliberately_?” Piper countered, a resolved expression on her face as she spoke. “Did you _know_ that Angel would lose his soul? Did you _know_ that there was a clause on his curse? Paige, I get that it’s tempting to just blame yourself for this, but you need to hold it together. Right now, you’re the one of us who knows Angel’s fighting style best, which means you’re the best candidate for taking him down if it comes to a fight; just because he’s become his evil twin doesn’t mean he can do anything new now.”

For a moment, Paige just sat there, reflecting on what her sister had just said to her, until, finally, she nodded, a resigned expression on her face.

“Just so long as we’re still going to _try_ and get him back,” she said, as she looked back up at her eldest sister. “I’ll do what I can to _stop_ him, of course, but… if we can at least make an attempt to put his soul back…”

“We’ll do it,” Cole reassured her, nodding over at the young hybrid. “You’ve got our word on that.”

Paige didn’t actually say ‘Thanks’ to Cole, but the brief nod she gave him was all the former Belthazor needed. He knew that she was grateful, and, right now, that was enough.

“Well, as great as it is that we’ve got _that_ little problem straightened out, the fact remains that we are still in some _serious_ trouble,” Phoebe stated grimly, sighing in frustration as she leant back on the couch, one hand clasping her forehead as she stared at the ceiling. “We’ve got an indestructible demon running around who can leech the life from anybody he touches, two of history’s worst vampires have set up shop here, _and_ our best fighter went evil because some gypsies didn’t have enough magical ‘oomph’ to make his soul stay where they put it. _Now_ what are we going to do?”

“Well, actually,” Piper put in, a slightly uncertain smile on her face as she glanced over at Leo, Cole and Paige, “before Angelus showed up, I _did_ have an idea about dealing with the ‘Judge’ part of our current problem…”


	19. Vanquishing the Judge

As Angelus nonchalantly strolled back into Spike's warehouse- having spent the previous few hours taking advantage of his new freedom to find himself some ‘snacks’ out in San Francisco- he was greeted by the welcome sight of Spike and Drusilla sitting nonchalantly around a table, Drusilla holding Miss Edith as she looked eagerly up at him.“Did Daddy have fun?” she asked him, looking for all the world like a little girl who was waiting to be told that she could go to the fairground.

“Oh, you should've seen their faces,” Angelus chuckled, as he hopped up to sit on a nearby conveyer platform. “It was _priceless_ ; I'll _never_ forget it.”

“So,” Spike stated bluntly as he glared at Angelus over his clasped hands, “you didn't kill them then.”

“Of course not,” Angelus replied, the tone of voice suggesting that Spike had just asked him if he’d walked from Earth to the Moon.

Sighing in frustration, Spike leaned forward to look critically at his grand-sire.

“Now,” he said, in a similar tone to the one Angelus had just used on him, “I know you haven't been in the game for a while, mate, but we still _do_ kill people. Sort of our raison d'etre, you know.”

“You don't want to kill her, do you?” Drusilla put in, smiling up at him as she briefly poked her Miss Edith doll in the eyes. “You want to hurt her… just like you hurt me.”

Angelus chuckled slightly at that comment.

“Nobody knows me like you do, Dru,” he said, glancing over at her with an almost affectionate smile.

“She'd better not get in our way,” Spike muttered, as he indicated the Judge. “Blue-boy’s tough, but I’d rather _not_ see how he deals with a bunch of witches who’ve taken out _that_ many demons already…”

“Don't worry about it,” Angelus said, shrugging slightly as he leant back against the wall.

“Spike, my boy,” he continued as he slammed his hands onto a nearby crate and shoved it along the rollers, “you _really_ don't get it, do you?”

Chuckling slightly, Angelus stood up and walked over towards Spike, indicating the other vampire’s wheelchair with an amused grin. “You tried to kill them, but you couldn't. Now look at you; just _one_ of them versus you, and you're a wreck while she’s walking around without a care in the world for what happened to you!”

Leaning against the wall to smirk nonchalantly at Spike, Angelus raised a criticial eyebrow as he continued talking. “They’re all stronger than any Slayer- hell, they’re stronger than any witch- you've ever faced. Force won't get it done. You’ve got to work from the _inside_. To kill these girls…”

Folding his arms behind his head as he leaned against the wall, Angelus smiled in satisfaction as he finished speaking. “You have to love one of them.”

* * *

  
At almost the same time as the vampires were having their little ‘conversation’, in a distant army base, there was a brief shimmering of brilliant blue-and-white light, and then Leo, Cole and Piper materialised in the middle of an army storeroom. Piper was now dressed in skintight red leather trousers and a tight blouse, the buttons undone just enough to expose her cleavage without being actually indecent, while Cole was wearing dark trousers and a dark poloneck jumper and Leo was just wearing casual clothes.

“I don’t _believe_ I’m doing this!” Leo hissed as he looked over anxiously at his two friends. “Do you even _realise_ how many rules we’re breaking by doing this?”

“Look, Leo, it’s either steal this, or let the Judge annihilate the planet; I think it’s a fair trade-off, wouldn’t you say?” Piper retorted, as she looked over critically at her husband as Cole began to scan their surroundings. “It’s risky, I know, but I’ve got it all sorted out; worst-case scenario, we get discovered and you bluff your way through with your old army training-”

“You mean my almost five-decades-out-of-date army training, right?” Leo retorted, as Cole continued to scan his surroundings for what they were looking for. “Y’know, the situation’s desperate enough as it is; do we _really_ have to try something _this_ insane? We don’t even know how to _work_ these things-”

“Part of my training as Belthazor included a thorough grounding in any non-magical methods of killing that I might be called upon to use in case I needed to divert suspicion from any murders of more high-profile people,” Cole added, as he studied another box before him. “I’m not an expert, but I’m pretty sure I can stick this thing together well enough so that we can actually _use_ it.”

“Ah,” Leo said, nodding slowly and uncertainly at his friend for a few moments before he looked back at his wife and indicated her clothing. “And… uh… you really _needed_ to wear… that?”

Piper shrugged.

“Well, if we’re discovered, we’ve got another back-up plan to avoid attracting attention,” she said, somewhat sheepishly indicating her exposed cleavage through the partially-unbuttoned shirt. “It’s not the most _elaborate_ plan, I know, but it’s something.”

“Agreed,” Cole put in, nodding in confirmation over at Piper. “I’ve always operated on a simple policy when it comes to plans; don’t over-complicate things, or you run the risk of making it so elaborate even _you_ can’t predict everything that’s going to happen.”

“Yeah, sure; can we just get what we’re looking for and get _out_ of here?” Leo insisted as he looked over at Cole. “Good reason to be here or not, I don’t want to stick around for longer than I _have_ to, you know!”

“Just a little more time, and we’ll have it,” Cole said, nodding reassuringly over at Leo before he turned around once more, his eyes falling on a particularly large box in one corner of the room. “Ah, _that_ looks promising…”

* * *

  
As the sun began to rise in the morning sky, Angelus beginning to get more than slightly frustrated at the slow pace of the current situation- after so long stuck underneath his accursed soul, he really hated _not_ being able to lash out at the world at a moment’s notice- the Judge finally stood up, his previous meditations apparently over as he walked over to Spike.

“I am ready,” the blue-skinned demon said simply.

“About time…” Spike muttered, rolling his eyes in frustration as he slumped in his wheelchair.

“Don’t complain, my little legless knight,” Drusilla said, leaning over to kiss Spike briefly on the forehead, paying little attention to the Judge as he turned away from them in disgust. “We’ll save you something nice.”

“Have fun,” Spike said, trying to convey his general distaste of the whole thing at the same time as he attempted to sound at least _slightly_ grateful; given that his continued existence probably depended on Angelus being in a good mood until he could move, he didn’t have much of a choice.

“Too bad you can't come with, huh?,” the vampire in question said, leaning over to speak softly and teasingly into Spike’s ear. “Don’t worry; I'll be thinkin' of you.”

“Y’know, I won't be in this chair forever,” Spike growled back at Angelus. “And when that happenes…”

“Eh; when it happens, it happens,” Angelus said, shrugging dismissively as he turned to take Drusilla’s hand as they prepared to follow the Judge. “If I learned anything from over a century stuck inside Soul-Boy, it’s that I need to _enjoy_ the pleasures of my unlife while I’ve got them; if that includes kicking you while you can’t fight back, so be it.”

“Talking of which,” Spike stated grimly, just as Angelus turned around to walk after the large blue demon, “what happens if your _girlfriend_ shows up?”

“Oh… I'm going to give her a… _kiss_ ,” Angelus said, chuckling slightly as he glanced back at Drusilla. “Now then, Dru, shall we get to that party?”

“Oh, _yes_ ,” Drusilla said, smiling broadly at her sire. “I _love_ parties!”

As the three figures departed the warehouse, Spike could only stare sulkily after the rest of his ‘team’ and wish that his legs were mobile.

* * *

  
Paige was just starting on her third cup of coffee- she didn’t want to risk going to sleep until this whole mess with the Judge had been sorted out; the nightmares she was sure to have about Angelus would be more than enough for her- when blue lights shimmered in the middle of the living room and Piper, Leo and Cole reappeared, Cole and Leo carrying a long crate between them.

“We got it,” Piper said, nodding over at her sister with a small smile on her face; it was a small joke, she acknowledged, but right now it was all she could think of. “I hope you like the colour.”

“I’m sure I will,” Paige stated simply, as she glanced at the box before her before looking back at Cole. “You know how to work this thing?”

“Yeah…” Cole said, nodding uncertainly at Paige, a slightly surprised expression on his face. “Uh… you sure _you_ don’t want to-”

“You’re the weapons expert,” Paige said simply as she looked at Cole. “I’m just the unarmed-combat-girl. You know how to use that thing; you fire it when the time comes.”

Nobody questioned her taking charge of the situation at the moment; after all the time Paige had spent with Angel, she’d become something of an amateur tactical whiz when it came to any vampire-related situation.

Besides, in many cases the Power of Three was a democracy more than anything else; each of the sisters had their own key strengths in dealing with a demon-related crisis, so it only made sense for a different one to take charge in each instance. Phoebe could handle the potions, Piper was good at planning the frontal assaults, and- since meeting Angel- Paige was becoming their tactical expert in dealing with anything vampire-related.

“OK then,” the young half-Whitelighter said, glancing over at her sisters as Cole began to open the box, “we go to the factory first, but they might not be there. They're on the offensive now; we need to figure out where they'd go.”

“Agreed,” Cole said, nodding over at her as he opened the box and glanced at it, a small smile on his face as he looked at what was in it. “Perfect; _just_ what we need right now.”

Glancing at the contents of the crate, Piper sighed slightly, an apprehensive expression on her face as she reflected on what they were about to do, and then glanced over at Leo.

“You’d better get Darryl,” she said, raising a hand to stop her husband’s surprised reply. “I _know_ this isn’t the kind of thing we’d normally get his help with, but if we have to use something like… _that_ , I’d prefer we have an authority figure available to help us deflect any questions.”

For a moment, Leo just continued to stare at Piper, then sighed and nodded.

“Well…” he sighed, shrugging slightly as he looked back at Paige. “I guess… with things the way they are… we could probably use all the help we could get right now.”

As he orbed away, Piper looked back at Paige, her sister’s body tense and stiff where it had been relaxed and calm merely a couple of days ago, and had to admit that Leo had a point.

With Paige in her current state- namely, shaken and potentially likely to collapse from delayed shock at what they’d just learned about Angel’s soul- they could probably use all the help they could get right now.

* * *

  
An hour or so later, the sisters, Leo and Cole appeared in front of the warehouse that they’d earlier identified as Spike’s hide-out, only to find Darryl already waiting there for them.

“Hi,” he said, nodding briefly at them before his gaze turned to Paige, his features becoming more sympathetic. “Piper told me about what happened, Paige. I just wanted to say…”

For a moment, he paused, as though trying to find the words, and then shrugged helplessly. “I’m sorry; I don’t know _what_ I can say in this kind of situation.”

“It’s OK…” Paige said, reaching over to give him a brief, comforting pat on the arm. “I appreciate you… acknowledging that you _can’t_ make the effort right now.”

For a moment there was silence as Paige stood in front of the warehouse, looking grimly at the building before her, and then she glanced over at Cole and Leo.

“Keep that thing ready,” she said, looking grimly at them. “We may not need it, but I’d appreciate it being available anyway.”

As she opened the door before her, Paige took a brief look inside the warehouse and groaned; it was empty, with even the boxes that had contained the Judge’s parts gone.

“I knew it,” she groaned, as she walked up to the table to clasp its edge in frustration. “They’ve jumped ship, and we haven’t got a _clue_ where they might be.”

“Well… somewhere crowded would be the best guess, right?” Darryll put in as he glanced over at the sister. “I mean, from what you’ve told me about this ‘Judge’ character, he needs live bodies, right?”

“ _Good_ point…” Leo said, nodding in confirmation as he glanced over at Piper. “What do you think; they’ll go after the clubs?”

“At this time of day?” Piper said, looking critically at her husband. “I'm surprised _any_ vampires would be active with the Sun _this_ high in the sky; I doubt we’d have a club open at nearly noon that would have enough visitors to attract the Judge.”

“Yeah…” Phoebe sighed, as she leant against the wall in frustration. “There's not a lot of choices in San Francisco for where to find a mass of people at this time of day. I mean, it's not like people are gonna line up to get massacred.”

“Well,” Darryl put in, looking over at his friends, uncertainty evident on his face but nevertheless willing to voice his current theory, “if this guy was a suicide bomber out to cause the most damage at this time of day, I know where he'd go; as far as numbers go, it’s definitely got a _lot_ of people in it.”

* * *

  
Down in the heart of Union Square- San Francisco’s principle shopping district- nobody yet fully registered the three figures approaching the back entrance of one of the larger buildings. The clock had already passed noon and the shadows were beginning to grow, leaving Angelus, Drusilla, and most of their remaining lackeys with ample opportunities to escape the sun as they approached one of the larger malls in the square.

As they entered the mall’s main doors, Angelus chuckled slightly at the sight of so many innocent victims walking about inside the building, totally unaware of what was about to happen to them.

 _This is gonna be_ great, he mused to himself, as the Judge stepped out into the sunlight. Nobody registered him at first- people probably assumed he was there to advertise something or something foolish like that- but then a brief motion of the Judge’s arm left a nearby figure reduced to a pile of ashes on the ground.

“Lock the exits, boys,” Angelus said, nodding briefly at his lackeys as they hurried down the stairs to do his bidding; the rest of the people in the mall still hadn’t quite processed what had just happened, but as far as Angelus was concerned, it would be easier to trap them now rather than later.

 _Damn_ … Angelus mused to himself as he studied the sight before him. _I’d almost forgotten how_ good _it feels to be at the top of the vampire pecking order_.

Turning to the Judge, Angelus chuckled slightly at the thought of seeing what this guy could do now that he was at full strength.

“It's all yours,” he said simply.

As a broad smile crossed the Judge’s face, he took a couple of steps down the flight of stairs before him, extending his arms to launch energy arcs throughout the mall, touching one person and then spreading to another mere moments later, before his arcs connected every single person currently inside the mall to every other person, none of them able to move or ask for help.

“Oh, goody!” Drusilla cried, bouncing up and down with glee, clapping her hands as she watched the people around them slowly begin to weaken as the Judge drained their power…

Suddenly the Judge staggered backwards, his armour suddenly smoking around the left shoulder as a brief explosion burst from the metal. His concentration broken by the attack, the energy arcs the Judge had been generating vanished, leaving his would-be victims dazed as the large blue demon looked up in rage at the source of the explosion.

“Who _dares_?” he roared.

As Angelus and Drusilla glanced up in the direction of the attack, Angelus smirked slightly as he saw the six figures standing on the opposite balcony; Piper and Cole in front, Piper’s hands raised in a manner that made it clear she’d just used her powers, with Darryl and Paige on their left while Phoebe and Leo stood on the right.

* * *

  
“Think I got his attention,” Piper said, smiling slightly over at her sister’s boyfriend. “It’s all yours now, Cole.”

“You are all fools,” the Judge stated simply as he glared up at his enemies. “No weapon forged or spell cast can kill me.”

“Sorry to dissuade you of your little notion, Judge-Boy,” Paige stated, unfolding her arms as she glared at the blue monster standing opposite her, “but that was then.”

Darryl hauled an object out of the box and passed it to Cole, who raised to his shoulder with a broad grin on his face.

Even without having seen one for themselves, Angelus and Drusilla both recognised it from war movies they’d seen over the years.

It was an anti-tank rocket launcher.

“ _This_ ,” Cole said, grinning broadly at the shocked expression on Angelus and Drusilla’s faces, “is now.”

Even as he spoke, he was turning the weapon on, setting his sights as he opened the trigger guard and the rest of the team hid behind a nearby snack counter; the former Belthazor was supporting the weapon on the railing before him, so he didn’t even need any help holding the weapon up.

Ever as Cole raised the launcher to point directly at the Judge, the blue demon hadn’t even registered that Angelus and Drusilla had leapt over the railing to get away from the object in front of him; all he was doing was standing there, staring blankly at the figure in front of him.

“What does that do?” the Judge asked in confusion.

Cole pulls the trigger and the rocket flies straight into the Judge's chest as Angelus and Drusilla fly over the railing. The Judge disappears in an explosion of flame and smoke. The people in the mall scream and start to panic and run. Angelus and Drusilla hit the floor below. Bits of charred Judge fall all around them. Paige looks up from the rocket launcher's sights and looked over at them in satisfaction. Angelus gets up and runs off. Drusilla freaks out and runs the other way. The team looked over the counter at what's left of the Judge. The smoke cloud from the explosion billows its way up to the ceiling.

“ _Nice_ …” Cole said, as he placed the weapon back in its box and glanced back at Darryl. “Uh… hope this won’t cause _too_ much of a problem when the explanations need to be given…”

Darryl shrugged.

“No worries,” he said dismissively. “I doubt anybody would have really been looking after what the ‘Judge’ did; I’ll just say it was an attempted suicide bomber who accidentally revealed his bombs before he was quite ready to blow them and had to trigger them early if he was going to do anything.”

“Talking of which…” Phoebe asked, jerking her thumb at the Judge’s various body parts, “do you think the sucker's dead _now_?”

“Given that he survived getting separated into no less that _six_ different pieces in the past, I don’t think there’s any way to know for sure _what_ could kill him,” Paige said, sighing slightly as she studied the bodyparts around them. “We need to pick up the pieces and keep them separate; think the Elders will have some idea what to do with them afterwards?” she added, looking over at Leo.“Yeah… that _should_ work…” Leo said, nodding uncertainly, before he glanced up as though spotting something. “Wait a minute…”

Glancing around in the direction that Leo had just looked in, Paige wasn’t exactly surprised to see Angelus standing in a corridor leading off from the main area of the mall, glaring angrily at her.

In many ways, he was like Angel in that regard; his ensouled counterpart had always wanted to make _sure_ his opponents were defeated.

“I’ll take him,” she said, as she looked grimly back at Leo. “You guys get the pieces.”

Before any of the others could protest, Paige had orbed herself over to stand beside Angelus, lashing out with a spinning kick that briefly sent the vampire staggering…

Just as the sprinklers activated from the smoke caused by the destruction of the Judge, sending water right into Paige’s eyes as she stared at Angelus as he regained his balance.

“You know what the _worst_ part was, huh?” Angelus stated as he smirked at her, giving Paige a few moments to wipe the water from her eyes. “Pretending that I loved you. If I'd known how easily you'd give it up, I wouldn't have even bothered.”

“That doesn't _work_ anymore,” Paige stated grimly as she glared back at the… _thing_ … that was using the body of the man she loved against her. “You're _not_ Angel; you’re just his demon.”

“You'd like to think it’s _that_ simple, wouldn't you?” Angelus stated, smirking slightly at his ensouled self’s lover. “It doesn't matter; the important thing is you made me the man I am today.”

“Yeah?” Paige said grimly. “Well, guess what? I’m also the one who’ll put you _down_!”

Praying that her reflexes were fast enough, Paige launched a punch at Angelus’ face, aiming for his nose, only to have him block the attack and retaliate with two rapid punches, one to the face and one to her gut.

Paige only needed a moment to register the worrying implications of those two attacks; both were painful, but neither one of them would do any _permanent_ damage.

Therefore, if he didn’t want to _kill_ her, the only other explanation that Paige could think of was that he must be interested in…

Turning _me_? Paige thought to herself, fear nearly taking control of her brain before she brought her attention back to the matter at hand and ducked under another punch from her current foe. _I don’t know whether to be flattered or freaked out; even evil, Angel_ still _seems to want me_ …

Then Angelus grabbed her arm and moved as though he was going to swing her into a wall, and Paige forced herself to get back on track; she had more _important_ issues to worry about than whether or not she was attractive to her boyfriend’s evil side. Orbing out of Angelus’s grasp, Paige lashed out with a rapid kick to the back of the vampire’s head as soon as she had become solid, following it up with another orb to stand in front of him and a rapid series of punches to his stomach. As he doubled over in pain, Paige launched a rapid blow with her knee to his chin, grabbed his arm before he could recover, and hurled him into a nearby display case.

 _Damn_ … Paige thought to herself, as she stared grimly at her opponent as he staggered dazedly back to his feet. _Did some damage to him, but_ damn _, that hurt_.

It was one of the main problems of the combat moves Angel had taught her; he may have been experienced at hand-to-hand combat, but his technique was defined in so many ways by his superior physical strength that it was sometimes difficult for him to forget when training Paige that he’d need to adjust what he taught her to account for her being weaker than him.

 _Of course_ , Paige mused to herself, as she launched another quick punch at the vampire’s face as he tried to stagger up, sending him collapsing backwards once again, _that doesn’t mean it_ doesn’t _work; it’s just a little trickier sometimes_.

Reaching into her back pocket, Paige pulled out the stake that she never allowed herself to go out without these days, and raised the weapon, staring grimly at Angelus as he lay dazedly before her.

She _knew_ she should do it… she _knew_ there wasn’t anything left of Angel in that body… she _knew_ that they had no way of guaranteeing he’d ever be the way he was again…

But she couldn’t do it.

Even as Angelus stood up to look at her, an arrogant, totally unAngel-like expression of self-satisfaction on his face, she couldn’t bring herself to drive the stake home…

“You can't do it,” Angelus said simply, chuckling slightly as he stared at her with his arms folded. “You _can't_ kill me.”

That, more than anything, was what got Paige _really_ annoyed; she may not be able to do it, but she did _not_ want her face _rubbed_ in it. Letting her emotions dictate her actions, she launched a powerful kick at his crotch, turning her back on him as he fell to his knees, clutching his privates in pain.

“Give me time,” she stated simply, as she headed back to join the others. She knew he’d be up and away before any of her sisters could get there to take him out, but that didn’t matter to her right now.

When the time came to take Angelus out, _she_ wanted to be the one to do it.

* * *

  
A few hours later, Paige sat dejectedly outside the manor, staring sadly at the setting sun before her as she reflected on the day’s events. The Judge had been taken care of- Leo and Phoebe had dumped the bodyparts in a chemical processing plant that had access to a decent-sized vat of sulphuric acid, which they all hoped would be enough to put him down for good; he may still exist, but it was hard to imagine anyone managing to put _sludge_ back together into a solid body…

“Hey,” a voice said from behind her.

Glancing back, Paige smiled slightly as Piper walked out of the Manor, looking anxiously at her younger sister.

“How’re you doing?” the eldest Halliwell asked, sitting down beside Paige as she spoke.

Paige shrugged.

“About what you’d expect,” she said simply.

“That crappy, huh?” Piper said, smiling weakly before she looked seriously at Paige. “You know, Angelus _is_ going to come back for us; Leo thinks that he’ll be after anything that made him feel… well, _human_ when he was Angel, and right now…”

“I’m top of the list, huh?” Paige said grimly, as she stared back at the city before her, the sun sinking as she watched. “God, I am _such_ a screw-up.”

“In what way?” Piper stated bluntly.

“Oh, come _on_ ; this is all _my_ fault!” Paige yelled as she turned to look at her eldest sister. “If I hadn’t-”

“What; fallen in love with him?” Piper asked critically. “Paige, neither of you could have _known_ this was going to happen; it’s not like you did it on _purpose_. Besides…”

She sighed slightly once again as she looked directly at her newest sister. “I may not have always entirely _got_ the relationship between you two- something about him being technically dead always kinda freaked me out- but he always proved that he loved you, and you… well, you clearly loved him for all his faults.”

Reaching over with one arm, Piper hugged Paige close to her as she stared out at the city before them.

“You’re not going to get guilt from me, Paige,” she said simply. “All you’ll get from me and the others is support… and respect, of course.”

For a moment, neither of them said anything for a while, then, finally, Paige leaned into Piper, closed her eyes, and began to cry as her older sister soothingly stroked her hair.


	20. Charmed and Dangerous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are; my alternate version of _Charmed and Dangerous_ (usual rules apply; if it’s not seen here it happened basically the same way as it did in canon)

Sitting in her office, Paige could only stare forlornly at the screen before her, trying to concentrate on her work even as her mind kept drifting back to the events of the last week or so. Ever since Angel had lost his soul, things had been relatively quiet on the demon front- Phoebe had guessed that taking out the Judge had sent the other demons a prominent message that the Charmed Ones _weren’t_ to be messed with, and Angelus seemed to be -, giving them all time to work on other matters in their lives.

So far, things had been going relatively well in their lives, even if some things hadn’t been exactly cheery. Phoebe had been working on a spell that she hoped would allow them to vanquish the Source- who, as it turned out, could _not_ absorb magic in the same manner that the Judge could-, Piper had been drawing up a will in the event of someone _else_ dying- as morbid as Paige felt it was, she _could_ see her sister’s point- and Paige had been working on her own social work career, having just come out of a meeting with a woman who was reapplying for custody of her child later in the day.

Admittedly, there _had_ been that phone call from Piper about a demon with half a face that Phoebe had seen in a vision, but Paige wasn’t too concerned about that one; it wasn’t going to happen for a while, and, in any case, right now Caroline needed her _way_ more than Phoebe did.

Paige may not have been able to save her boyfriend, but she _could_ save this woman from losing her son due to past mistakes.

She just…

Paige sighed.

 _God_ , she wished she could _stop_ thinking about the way things had _been_ with Angel and start focusing on the way things _were_ with him. Whatever he’d been before he lost his soul, _now_ he was Angelus, an evil killing machine dedicated to ripping her and her family apart and pinning the body-parts to the wall to give him something interesting to look at when he woke up in the morning; she had to _forget_ what he’d been and remember what he _was_.

 _Angel wouldn’t_ want _to go on like this_ , she tried to remind herself, as she stood up and began to walk towards the door that would take her to her car, and, from there, to the courthouse. _He’d_ rather _be dead than let his body keep doing what Angelus is capable of… he’d_ want _me to kill him_ …

Maybe if she told herself that long enough, she’d start to believe it.

As it was, right now she couldn’t stop herself from constantly trying to find some way to reconcile her need to kill Angelus with almost equally-strong desire to have Angel back in her life.

* * *

  
An hour or so later, as Paige stood outside the courthouse with Darryl- and she had _never_ been more grateful for her sisters’ presence in her life in a non-magical sense; Darryl’s aid in this case had proved to be an almost literal _life-saver_ so far- she was no longer occupied with thoughts of Angel- _AngelUS_ , she reminded herself, as she’d kept forcing herself to do every time she used her boyfriend’s name; _Angel is gone, and AngelUS is what’s left_ -, but instead was focused on the more conventional problem of her client not having shown up for the court case that would determine whether or not she was allowed to retain custody of her child.

"This is _very_ bad…” she mused, glancing at her watch before she looked back at Darryl. “Something must have happened to her.”

Right then, Paige had never been more grateful for Angel’s vampiric nature; given how high the sun was in the sky right now, it at least meant that Caroline couldn’t have been targeted by Angelus as part of his ‘revenge’ against her. Even if he’d somehow managed to get to her apartment without being turned into dust, there was no _way_ that Caroline would agree to let _anybody_ she didn’t know into her house right now.

"She _did_ seem pretty shaky this morning,” Darryl agreed, nodding thoughtfully at the youngest Charmed One. “You don't think she...”

" _No_ ,” Paige said bluntly as she stared at her friend, making it clear in her gaze. “She wouldn't sabotage this, not when she's come _this_ close to getting her son back.”

She may have screwed up with Angel, but, as Piper had reminded her after the defeat of the Judge, she couldn’t have _known_ that there was a clause for her to trigger that would have caused this whole mess in the first place.

Here, she was facing the possibility of failure when she _knew_ what she was getting into, and she was _not_ going to let that happen…

"Yeah, well,” Darryl continued, looking somewhat sceptically at her, “ _I_ believe you, but will the judge?”

"God, I hope her ex didn't find her…” Paige groaned, only half-registering what Darryl had said to her; given her current situation with Angelus, her imagination was more occupied by the unpleasant possibilities that might have happened if Caroline’s ex-husband _had_ attacked her to try and insure that she wouldn’t get custody.

If he wasn’t hampered by the whole ‘needed an invitation to get inside people’s houses’ thing, she might have been more worried about what Angelus could do in this situation; attacking Caroline and make it look like she was still having trouble in her life, just to guarantee that Paige’s professional stance was as tarnished as her personal life seemed to be recently, seemed like just the kind of thing he might do…

Then the ringing of her phone cut her off mid-thought, prompting her to pull it out of her pocket and answer it.

“Caroline?” she asked hopefully.

“ _Paige_?” a voice said on the other end.

“Oh, hey, Phoebe,” Paige said, trying not to sound too impatient. “Look, I'm gonna need more time-”

“ _We don’t_ have _more time, Paige; the Source has stolen Piper’s powers and he’s out to get the rest of us_!” Phoebe yelled over the phone.

“Oh...” Paige said, her eyes widened slightly in shock as she took in what had just been said.

No matter what she was doing right now, with Piper powerless, their current situation couldn’t be anything but a _seriously_ bad situation.

“OK, I'm on my way,” she sighed, as she hung up the phone and looked back at Darryl apologetically. “I've gotta go.”

“You can't just _leave_!” Darryl protested, looking in frustration at Paige. “You're the _only_ reason why she's getting a second chance.”

"Well… now it's up to you,” Paige sighed, regret plain on her face. “Believe me, I’d love to stay, but I _have_ to go, it's a demonic emergency; a _really_ big one.”

For a moment, Darryl looked like he was about to protest, but then, after a brief pause, he sighed in understanding.

“OK,” he said in the end. “What do you need me to do?”

“Just see if you can postpone the hearing for a couple of hours,” Paige replied, as she glanced anxiously at her watch again; she knew she should stop doing that, but checking how long they had until sunset was one of the few ways she managed to reassure herself that she _wouldn’t_ be grabbed by Angelus while walking along a street.

“Paige, you know better than that!” Darryl protested. “You can't just postpone legal proceedings, there are forms to file-”

“I know, but right now we don’t have a choice,” Paige protested, as she reached over to take one of his hands in her own, the better to emphasise how desperately important this was. “Please, Darryl… can you _please_ pull some strings and buy us some time? I know it’s a lot to ask, but if we don't help her there is no one who will.”

After another brief pause- Paige knew better than most how much Darryl hated it when magic and legal proceedings collided, but, to his credit, he always managed to pull through- Darryl nodded in understanding.

"OK…” he sighed, as he looked at Paige. “I'll try.”

"Thanks,” the half-Whitelighter said, giving him a brief grateful thumbs-up as she took one last check-over herself to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. “Just keep paging her, trying her at home… we _have_ got to find her.”It was only after she’d turned away from Darryl that Paige allowed herself to reflect her true feelings about this whole mess.

 _Great_ , she cursed to herself as she began to walk back towards her car, trying not to think too much about what could go wrong with this situation in both her magical and normal lives.If they didn’t stop the Source’s latest scheme soon, not only would Caroline lose her son, but there was a very good chance that the sucker would be depriving Angelus of the chance to kill her.

Right now, Paige wasn’t sure which option she should be in favour of; the Source was significantly more powerful, of course, but Angelus _did_ have the whole ‘brutally-tortures-his-victims-before-actually- _killing_ -them’ thing going down for him…

* * *

  
A matter of hours later, as Paige stood in the mansion’s living room with her sisters, the Source standing directly in the middle of the room with an extremely self-satisfied look on his Two-Face-like head, she knew without a doubt which one of their current two enemies she’d prefer to have trying to kill them. Angelus was unquestionably the more brutal of the two, but at least he left you alive- albeit in pain- long enough to potentially come up with a plan to get out of the mess.

The Source, on the other hand, as he prepared a fireball and hurled it at Piper, clearly had no interest in ‘prolonging their torment’; he just wanted to kill them. Quite frankly, Paige was just grateful that she’d managed to give Caroline that last little ‘boost’ she’d needed to win the court case in her favour before this all happened; at least she’d managed to help one last person before dying…

Then, as her sister was thrown against the wall from the sheer force of the fireball that had just been hurled at her, something inside Paige that had kept her rooted to the spot from fear snapped in frustration.

She’d already lost Angel to this stupid fight; worse, she’d lost the soul she loved while the body she’d loved was walking around trying to kill her.

This asshole was _not_ going to take her sisters.

Before he could turn to look at her, Paige lashed out with a rapid punch to the disfigured half of the sucker’s face, guessing that he was more vulnerable on that side than on the other one. Judging by his reaction, her guess was accurate; as soon as her fist struck his permanently-closed right eye, the Source screamed in pain, reaching up to clutch at the rapidly-forming bruise as the youngest Charmed One glanced anxiously over at her family.

“ _Move_!” she yelled, indicating the stairs as Phoebe hurried over to haul Piper up onto her feet; Leo was still out of it thanks to that recent Darklighter attack, but Paige doubted that the Source would be that concerned about a single Whitelighter when he had the Charmed Ones right in front of him.

As Paige joined Phoebe in carrying Piper up the stairs towards the attic and the Book of Shadows, she didn’t even dare try to look back in case the Source was following them on foot; she knew he could flame after them if he wanted, but she wasn’t sure whether he’d prefer to wait until he’d recovered from that last punch.

Whenever she looked back at them in the future, the next few moments were only a blur for Paige; she recalled climbing the stairs to get back into the attic, and lowering the stairs to actually get into the room as she and Phoebe hauled Piper up, but the fine details of the trip would remain a mystery to her.

“Get Piper over to the Book,” Paige said, indicating the Book of Shadows in the middle of the room; right now, given her recent successful attack on the Source, she seemed to have been unofficially appointed ‘boss’ of this situation.

“Come on, honey…” Phoebe whispered to Piper as they carried her across the room, putting her down beside the book. “We _need_ you, Piper, it’s time. Come on, you can do it…”

“Yeah, about that; do you actually have any idea how we go about doing this without our powers?” Paige pointed out. “I mean, Angel may have given me lessons, but I kinda missed the one on breaking the bad guy’s neck before he turns me into deep-fried wicca…”

“We can still make the plan work; it’ll just be a bit trickier than it might have been,” Phoebe explained, as she jerked her thumb over at a nearby table. “Get the crystals.”

Paige had only just started to hurry across the room towards the table where they’d left the crystals when the Source materialised between her and it, a self-satisfied smirk on his face as he studied her.

“Seems almost anti-climatic after all this time, doesn't it?” he said, as he looked at her. As soon as the sentence had finished, he reached out as though to grab Paige and hurl her away from him, his expression making it clear that he regarded this particular detail of their deaths as far beneath him now…

Only for his eyes to widen in shock as Paige grabbed one of his arms and hurled him into a wall, a grim expression on her face as he hit her target.

“If that’s your idea of _anti_ -climatic,” Paige retorted as she glared at him while reaching back to grab the crystals, “I’d almost hate to see what you think of as a _dramatic_ finish. Phoebe?” she continued, glancing up at her sister, the crystals in her hands. “Catch!”

To her credit, Phoebe didn’t even appear slightly phased by the Source’s sudden appearance in the attic; she just grabbed the crystals Paige had thrown at her, laying them down on the floor as Paige placed hers on the ground, leaving one in her pocket as she glanced back over at the Source just in time to see him get back to his feet.

“Hey, Harvey!” she yelled over at the powerful demon. As the Source turned to look in confusion at her, Paige smiled.

“Think fast,” she said grimly.

With that, she charged towards the demon, raising one leg and lashing out at his head with a wild kick that sent him staggering back into the middle of the circle.

“ _Now_!” Paige yelled, as he placed the final crystal on the ground, electricity bolts instantly surrounding him as Paige and Phoebe hurried over towards Piper, who was already beginning to apparently regain consciousness.

 _C’mon_ … Paige thought pleadingly at Piper as she crouched beside her sister, who was slowly but surely coming back to full consciousness. _Wake up, Piper… please be OK_ …

“Crystal,” the Source said from behind them, his casual tone belying the situation he was currently in.

It was only after Paige had spun around to see the electric cage vanish and the Source casually holding one of the crystals in his hand that she realised their mistake; he still had _her_ powers available to him.

“Now,” the Source said, a broad grin on his face as he looked at Phoebe, “the moment we've all been waiting for…”

With that, he drew back one hand and hurled a fireball in Phoebe’s direction. Paige had just barely had time to realise what was happening, and was trying desperately to figure out what she could do to stop it- diving between the ball and Phoebe would accomplish nothing, and physical weapons were pretty much useless against the Source even if she’d had any available to her right now-, when Cole Turner suddenly appeared directly in front of her sister, absorbing the energy ball as though it wasn’t even there.

“ _Belthazor_?” the Source yelled in shock

“No…” Phoebe whispered, almost half to herself, as she stared at her fiancé. “The Hollow.”

To his credit, Cole didn’t seem phased by their reactions; as Piper finally seemed regain full consciousness, staring in up shock at the sight before her as Paige crouched beside her, Cole hurled a fireball at the Source, smiling grimly as the demon was sent staggering backwards.

"Hurry!” he yelled over at the sisters. “Use the spell!”

Nodding grimly, Phoebe reached into her pocket and pulled out the piece of paper she’d written the spell on, showing it to her sisters as they began to read from it.

" _Prudence, Patricia, Penelope, Melinda,_ ” Paige began to say, her sister’s voices joining her as they stared at their opponent.“ _Astrid, Helena, Laura and Grace._ ”

As the three spoke, the Source began to burn, but none of them paid attention to his screams; they had more important matters to finish right now.

“ _Halliwell witches stand strong beside us,  
Vanquish this evil from time and space_!" they concluded. The Source let out a desperate scream of pain and rage, reached out as though he was trying to grab one of them, and then exploded in a massive burst of dark energy. The group had barely had the time to process what had just happened when the majestic figure of a woman dressed in a dark red robe appeared in the attic, holding a box that Paige recognised from the Book of Shadows as the box that held the Hollow.

"Who are you?” Phoebe asked the woman.

"Someone who just helped save your lives,” the woman explained, as she opened the box, drawing a strange energy that Paige could only assume was the Hollow out of Cole and back into the box.

“Quickly,” the woman said, looking at Phoebe, “take my hand.”

"Trust her,” Cole said, nodding at Phoebe. “If you want your powers back.”

Nodding grimly at Cole, Phoebe walked over to stand beside the woman.

“Say the inscription with me,” the woman said, indicating the writing on the box. As Paige, Cole and Piper watched, Phoebe turned to study the writing as she and the woman spoke.

" _Abolio exume ga ume to eternius_ ,” Phoebe and the woman said. Paige briefly wondered what language that was, but pushed it aside; this wasn’t the time for concerns like that. As soon as the last word was out of their mouths, the box floated up into the air and, in a brief burst of white light, vanished from the room.

“Not bad,” Paige said, nodding briefly at the woman before she stood up. “Back in a sec,” she said, glancing briefly at Piper before she closed her eyes, focused her mental energies inwards…

Then, much to her relief- a part of her hadn’t been sure that whatever Phoebe and that woman had done would be enough to restore their powers-, after the brief, familiar tingle that she always felt when she orbed, she found herself standing over Leo’s still body, his wound still prominent on his side.

 _OK then_ , Paige thought to herself as she bent down over her brother-in-law, running over all the times Angel had encouraged her to focus her powers during their practice sessions, _time to earn my keep._

Closing her eyes, she concentrated as hard as she could on the wound, allowing her powers to flow through her into her brother-in-law. She knew that she lacked the full control of her powers that she would have possessed if she’d just been a Whitelighter, which limited the possibility that she’d actually pull this off…

But, if nothing else, she knew that Angel had always believed in her powers. Piper and Phoebe may have faith in her abilities as well, but Paige sometimes felt like they were trying to judge her based on what Prue would have been capable of; Angel had looked at her from a totally fresh perspective as far as her magical talent went, and simply believed that she could do whatever task she set herself.

He’d always believed in her.

Now she had to do the same.

As Phoebe, Piper, Cole and the woman came down the stairs to join her, Paige watched as a faint glow spread from her hands to Leo’s wound, slowly but surely healing his injury. It didn’t heal as rapidly as it would have done if Leo had been healing a wound, true, but that didn’t matter to Paige; all that mattered was that she’d unlocked yet another Whitelighter power on her own.

“ _Yes_!” she smiled, punching the air in victory as the rest of her family entered the room.

“Ugh…” Leo groaned as he sat up, looking blearily at Paige. “Paige?”

“Leo!” Piper cried in relief, hurrying over to hug her husband, regardless of the vivid bruises on her back and arms.

For a moment, Paige couldn’t stop a brief twinge of jealousy as she looked at Leo and Piper- how could her _sister_ still have the love of her life and she couldn’t- but she pushed it aside almost at once.

They’d beaten the Source, and, no matter how bad things became, there was still hope for Angel to be restored to them.

Paige wouldn’t accept another possibility.

* * *

  
“All is as it should be again; I must return to my side.,” the Seer said, looking around at the Halliwells before her gaze settled on Cole. “It is too bad that Belthazor is gone; he would have made a great new Source.

"Too bad,” Cole said simply, as he stared grimly back at the Seer; no matter what she’d done for them now, he would _never_ be pleasant to her.

"I don't know who you are,” Phoebe said, as she turned to look at the Seer with a small smile, either not registering or not caring about Cole’s cold attitude towards the new arrival, “but, whoever you are, we thank you.”

"Oh, I didn't do this for your future,” the Seer said, shaking her head slightly, her voice so casual she might as well have been explaining why she didn’t choose to wear a certain outfit today. “I did it for mine.”

"Y’know, there’s just _one_ thing I don’t get,” Paige put in, looking inquiringly over at the Seer. “If we got our powers back with the Source’s death, where did the Source's powers go?”

"Into the void,” the Seer said simply.

With that, she disappeared in a brief shimmer in the air, leaving no sign that she’d ever been there in the first place.

“OK…” Piper muttered, blinking in confusion as she glanced over at Cole, tenderly rubbing her still-bruised back, “who was that?

“A very evil person,” Cole said simply; he may have saved the sisters, but the former Belthazor didn’t want to think about the deal he’d been forced to make any more than he had to.

"Yeah, one that saved our lives _and_ helped us kill the Source,” Phoebe pointed out, smiling slightly at Cole as she spoke. “Overall, I say we forget about the fine details like motive and focus on that part; why spoil a good day?”

 _Yes_ … Cole mused to himself as he walked over to hug Phoebe, a tender smile on his face as he looked around the attic. _It’s over… the Hollow is sealed once again… The Source is gone…_

As the former demonic assassin stood beside Phoebe, smiling affectionately at the friends and soon-to-be-family (Once he and Phoebe actually got around to the wedding now that the proposal was officially out of the way), he tried not to think too much about the nagging presence that now seemed to be lurking in the part of his mind that had once belonged to Belthazor…

* * *

  
A few hours later, as the former Belthazor stood silently at a corner of the street, the Halliwells and Leo all in bed after their post-battle celebration at P3, he found his thoughts consumed by what had taken place during that last confrontation with the Source.

In many ways, he wasn’t sure what fate would have been worse; letting Phoebe die, or being forced to become… _this_ … trapped once again as everything he’d wanted to reject…

“No,” he said, half to himself, clenching a fist as he turned to walk back towards the manor. “I’ll fight him… I won’t _let_ him…”

“Let who?” a casual voice asked from off to the side. “Belthazor? No, it’s more powerful even than _that_ guy was back in the day… you’re packing some _seriously_ tough mojo there, my friend.”

“What the…?” Cole said, turning to look in the direction that the voice seemed to be coming from, only to see something that made his eyes widen in horror.

There in front of him, leaning casually against a lamp-post as though he had no concern other than chatting with an old friend, stood Angelus, dressed in Angel’s traditional leather duster, dark trousers and black shirt, a slight smile on his face as he studied his ensouled counterpart’s friend.

“Easy, Cole; just here to have a little chinwag with an old friend,” Angelus said, raising his hands in a manner that Cole could only presume was in some way intended to be reassuring.

Then Angelus’s eyes narrowed, a slight smirk crossing his face at the same time, and Cole suddenly had a very bad feeling what the vampire was here to talk about.

“Or would you rather I called you ‘the Source’ these days?” he asked, tilting his head curiously to one side.

Cole’s eyes widened in shock.

“How-?” he began.

“Oh, please; aren’t you forgetting that you’re not the _only_ one who’s got a seer available?” Angelus chuckled as he studied the former lawyer. “I mean, OK, you’ve got Sister Number Three of what would have been the Power of Four- not to mentionthat demonic chick who’s working for you these days-, but Dru’s not exactly a slouch in the old fortune-telling department once you get past the fact that she’s a little loopy. She saw the fight between you guys and the old Source about an hour before it finished, along with exactly _how_ it would end, and I’ve just been waiting around for an opportunity to have a bit of a ‘talk’ with you before things get too hectic for you- y’know, what with having the whole demonic underworld to organise and control these days.”

“If you’re here to kill me-” Cole began, staring resolutely at the creature wearing the face of a former friend.

“Oh, and what would _that_ accomplish?” Angelus asked, sounding almost hurt as he looked at the latest incarnation of the Source. “Please, my fine old friend, I’m not here to get into a _fight_ with you; I just wanted to talk about… stuff… regarding your recent ‘promotion’, and how it ties in with my own… plans, shall we say?”

“Ah,” Cole said, lowering his hand- he hadn’t even realised he’d raised it- as he looked critically at the vampire. “Let me guess, this is a case of scratching each other’s backs and agreeing to stay out of the other’s way, correct?”

“See, I _knew_ you got that law degree for more than just your being a demon,” Angelus chuckled, clasping his hands together briefly as though he was about to clap before he continued talking. “The rules of the game are simple; I don’t tell your beloved fiancé about your newly-acquired status as President of the Magic Demon Underworld, and in exchange, you help me out with any little legs-up I might need if I ever find myself needing magical assistance to tackle a problem. Seem fair?”

Cole shrugged, momentarily allowing the Source to come through; _not too much_ , he reminded himself, _just enough to make sure Angelus knows who he’s talking to_ …

“A convincing little argument, but I have one little question,” he said, as he raised one hand to generate an energy ball. “What, exactly, is to stop me from just dusting you now and telling Paige and the rest that I got lucky with a stake?”

Angelus shook his head pityingly.

“Do you really think I’m _that_ dumb to tell you something like this and _not_ have a back-up plan?” he asked, as he looked back at Cole with a small smirk. “Spike and Dru have their marching orders; I don’t get in touch with them at least once every day, they’re to assume I’m dead and let the Halliwells know that you’ve gone over to the Dark Side on them again. I’m not saying they’ll _instantly_ believe it, but if they actually start watching you…”

Cole hated to admit it, but Angelus had a point; even if the Halliwells didn’t believe that he’d become the Source _instantly_ , just the suggestion that he’d undergone such a transformation would be enough for them to start paying closer attention to him. He was good at hiding the truth when they hadn’t even the slightest idea that they _needed_ to suspect him, but when it came to trying to keep a secret from people who already thought that there was something off…

He was pretty confident that he could pull it off, but ‘pretty confident’ wasn’t good enough for him; either he had a definite guarantee, or he wasn’t going to risk it.

With Cole’s soul still intact somewhere inside him, the stakes were just too high for him to have anything that stood even the slightest _chance_ of jeopardising his plans…

“OK,” he said, as he turned to look grimly back at Angelus, his eyes narrowed as he studied the vampire. “Just remember one thing; if you ever come _directly_ after Phoebe-”

“You’ll put me down like a rabid dog?” Angelus interjected, a slight smirk remaining on his face as he held out one hand. “Trust me; so long as you help me out if I need it, and don’t do anything to Paige before I’m ready to ‘finish’ her myself, I’ll do nothing against Phoebe.”

“Good,” Cole stated, as he took Angelus’s offered hand and shook it.

Neither man bothered to say anything else after that; further words would have been relatively hollow anyway, merely insincere comments about wishing the other luck that wouldn’t have been serious anyway. They both knew that this arrangement was only a strict, limited détente rather than an actual alliance; Angelus had information Cole didn’t want the sisters to discover, and Cole had access to resources that Angelus didn’t. For the moment, at least, they needed this deal if they were going to carry out their respective plans against the Charmed Ones without interference from the other, but the moment each one had what they wanted…

Both of them knew that only time could tell what the final outcome of this particular ‘deal’ would be, but they each knew one thing; it would _not_ end with both of them standing.

As they parted ways, Angelus waiting until Cole had walked some way down the street to turn around himself- agreement or no, he was hardly going to turn his back on someone as powerful as the new Source-, the former Scourge of Europe allowed himself a small chuckle at this latest turn of events.

Regardless of what happened next in his little schemes- and he had some _very_ promising ideas for what he could do to Paige, he had to admit; the modern world had so many useful torture implements-, Angelus had a distinct feeling that the future was going to be very… interesting… for all concerned parties.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, next up, Cole and Phoebe’s demonic wedding, as Angelus steps up his torment of Paige (The events of ‘The Three Faces of Phoebe’ was unaffected by Angelus; _he_ has no interest in changing the past in case it results in him never having been freed from the curse in the first place)


	21. Marry Go Round

As Paige slowly blinked her eyes open after another quiet night’s sleep, she rolled over dazedly in bed, wishing she could just have another few minutes’ rest before she actually had to get up and start the day. She knew she _had_ to get up- even after arguing Phoebe down to allowing her to show up late at the rehearsal the night before due to her needing to check over some important paperwork at the office, she still had to show up- but, right now, she couldn’t bring herself to care. All she wanted was to rest for a bit longer, and then, after a decent day’s work, visit a church to help her sisters prepare for the second Charmed-One-wedding…

Then her eyes fell on something that was currently lying on her pillow, and she sat bolt upright, staring in shock at the object in her hand. It was a piece of paper, about average size, with a charcoal drawing of her face as she lay asleep on her bed. The picture was incredibly detailed, of course, but that wasn’t what really drew Paige’s attention to it.

It was the signature in the bottom right-hand corner.

It was Angelus’s signature; it was too much like Angel’s to be anything _but_. _He’d been in her room last night_ …

For a moment, Paige was tempted to just drop everything and head straight down to Piper and Phoebe to let them know what had happened; after all, the sooner they attended to anything Angelus-related, the better, as far as she was concerned.

However, after a moment’s pause, she decided not to mention anything at the immediate moment. If she didn’t leave soon, she’d be late for work, and she had enough problems to be dealing with without losing her job on top of everything else. Besides, Piper had to get in to P3 to check out arrangements for tonight- even if she wasn’t going to actually be in the club, she preferred to see for herself that things were working out- and Phoebe was already rushed off her feet trying to get things ready for the wedding; she didn’t want to trouble them about something that they couldn’t do anything about at the immediate moment.

So long as she stayed in the sunlight for the rest of the day until she could get in contact with her sisters, she was pretty sure she’d be OK…

* * *

  
Despite all her resolutions not to think about the problem that she’d been confronted with upon waking up, Paige found her mind constantly turning back to it whenever she found herself with nothing to do at the office.

She just couldn’t understand it; why had Angelus not just turned/killed/done whatever he wanted to her? It would have been so easy to take her out before anyone else could realise what had happened, and, in the end, all he’d done was _draw_ her? She wasn’t sure whether to interpret that as an encouraging sign or a disturbing one; she’d known Angelus was at least _slightly_ ‘interested’ in her- if that was the right term to use- since he’d expressed a certain interest in turning her during the fight in Union Square, but to _this_ extent? He’d seemed perfectly interested in taking her alive during the fight back then, and the only reason that made sense was if he wanted to change her later. Did he want to torment her the way he’d tormented Drusilla, or had he just not felt in the mood to turn her at the time?

Either way, as Paige drove towards the church where Piper and Phoebe were planning the wedding details, shee was convinced of two things; she was _definitely_ mentioning this to her sisters, and she was _definitely_ keeping her window locked tonight until they found a more permanent solution. She didn’t know whether that would discourage Angelus from getting into the room, but at least she’d have a bit more warning when he broke the glass; given that him doing that couldn’t fail to wake her up, she could probably orb herself to safety before he could… _do_ anything.

It wasn’t a perfect solution, but at least it was something until they could get something better sorted out.

As she entered the church, Paige smiled slightly as she heard Phoebe panicking about some of the wedding arrangements as Piper offered up suggestions; evidently her sister was still as anxious to have the perfect wedding as ever.

“No, we can't release balloons either!” Phoebe protested as she looked at Piper, neither of them having apparently registered Paige’s presence yet. “They float to the ocean and the whales mistake them for squid and I can't be thinking about whales washing up on the beach during my wedding, you know what I mean.”

“Honey…” Piper said, leaning over to place a comforting hand on her sister’s shoulder, “I know you want the perfect day but you need to relax a little bit… and breathe, OK? Breathing's good, breathing is your friend…”“Geez, you’re _really_ going all out on this, aren’t you?” Paige asked, smiling slightly at her sisters as she entered the church. “I mean, is this a wedding or a coronation?”

“Where’s my dress?” Phoebe asked, turning to look directly at Paige before she could say anything else.

Paige could have kicked herself; all that effort to figure out how to tell them about the picture Angelus had left her, and she went and forgot the _one_ thing she’d been asked to do for the wedding?

“Uh… I don’t have it,” she said, looking awkwardly at her sister, holding up a hand to stop her reply. “Look, I’ll get it on my way to the rehearsal dinner tomorrow; I had something on my mind that kinda drove that out of my mind…”

“In what way?” Piper asked, looking anxiously at her youngest sister, Phoebe’s wedding apparently forgotten in light of this new news. “Angelus-related issue, work-related issue, or what?”

“Angelus,” Paige sighed, as she reached into her bag and pulled out the drawing he’d left her the night before. “He left _this_ in my room last night.”

Phoebe blinked in shock at the sight in front of her.

“Oh my God…” she whispered softly, as she reached over to pick up the paper before looking back at Piper and Paige. “But… can’t he only get in if someone invites him?”

“He told me that’s only valid the first time around; once you’ve invited him in once, he can come in whenever he likes afterwards,” Paige explained, as she looked anxiously at Phoebe. “Think you can whip up something that’ll cancel his invitation?”

“Would that even be possible?” Phoebe replied, her gaze refocusing on her half-sister- she’d been glancing around the church, clearly only half-listening to Paige as she fretted about the upcoming wedding arrangements. “I mean, we can’t give Angel back his soul…”

“Look, Leo said that the only reason _that_ won’t work is because vampires are naturally soulless,” Piper said, looking reassuringly at her sister. “They’re also naturally not _meant_ to be able to get into houses, so it’s not like we’re trying to _change_ the natural order; we’re just trying to _restore_ it.”

“Oh, that simple, huh?” Phoebe said, before she leant forward and sighed slightly. “God… can’t we have _anything_ be simple for once? I mean, I just want tomorrow to be perfect, no glitches- natural or supernatural, you know? No magic, no ghosts, no need for spells… and now I’ve got to whip a spell to keep _Angelus_ out?”

“Hey, if it’s that much of a bother, Paige and I can whip something up ourselves-” Piper began.

“No, no, I can do it tonight,” Phoebe said, shaking her head reassuringly as she looked at her older sister. “I’ll come up with the spell tonight, but after that… I just want tomorrow to be nice and… well, _normal_.”

“Honey,” Piper said, reaching over to pat Phoebe reassuringly on the shoulder, “I promise you we will have your perfect wedding. By this time tomorrow, you and Cole will be joined in holy matrimony.”

Paige didn’t say anything to that; as much as she wished Phoebe and Cole could have the happiness that she and Angel seemed to have been denied, she couldn’t shake the slight, nagging feeling that something was going to go wrong with this whole situation.

Of course, it could have just been her paranoia over the whole ‘Angelus can get into my room any time he wants and is making me terrified by not instantly killing me’ thing she had going on right now, but she didn’t think that was _all_ it was.

* * *

  
A few hours later, however, with Leo, Darryl and Victor having gone off to Cole’s hotel room for the bachelor party, and Phoebe having simply gone to her room to try and come up with a decent ‘uninvite Angelus’ spell, Paige found herself sitting in her bedroom, anxiously studying the tarot cards Phoebe had given her and Piper as a pre-wedding gift, anxiously dealing them out over and over.

No matter how many times she dealt them, she always got the same three cards; the Lovers, Despair, and Death.

 _Great_ … she sighed, as she stood up, tucked the cards into her pocket- she had yet to change out of her pyjamas- and headed for Piper’s room; in Phoebe’s current state, Paige doubted she’d care for a visitor right now.

“Piper,” she said as she entered the room, the eldest Halliwell turning from the mirror where she’d been brushing her hair to look at her. “Look, I can’t keep this to myself any longer; _this_ ,” she continued, brandishing the cards in her hand, “is Phoebe and Cole's tarot reading; they were lovers in the past, despair fills their present, but this is their future.”

“Death?” Piper said, studying the card in question before she shook her head slightly. “Oh please, that looks nothing _like_ death. Prue met him; I know what-”

“No,” Paige interrupted- even after Angel’s help, she still found any reference to Prue a bit of a touchy subject- as she tapped the cards in her hand impatiently. “You’re missing the point; this is a bad omen.”

“Not necessarily…” Piper said, shrugging slightly.

“ _Look_ ,” Paige continued, resolved to get her point across. “Cole's a nice guy, fine, whatever. But face the facts, he was the world's greatest demon for what, a century?”

“Yeah, but we’ve been through all that,” Piper replied, before she looked slightly awkwardly at Paige, clearly uncertain whether she should bring up what she was about to say before deciding to go for it. “Anyway, I thought… y’know… Angel helped you get through that whole… ‘anti-Cole’ thing.”

For a moment, Paige allowed herself a moment’s regret at the thought of her practically-deceased boyfriend- his body didn’t have a soul; that counted as ‘dead’ to her these days- before she replied.

“He _did_ help, don’t get me wrong- kind of hard to be mad at Cole for stuff like that when I’m willing to give Angel a shot- but a century's worth of blood and bad karma, you don't just walk away from that,” she replied, sighing slightly as she reached over to finger the claddagh ring Angel had given her; even after he’d gone evil, she had yet to take it off. “I mean, look at Angel; spent a century or so eating rats and other stuff like that, and then went evil _again_ because of some screwed-up loophole in his curse.”

“He ate rats?” Piper said, looking at her sister in shock.

“What else was he gonna eat; they didn’t _exactly_ hand blood out to just anybody back then, you know,” Paige retorted, before she shook her head and forced herself back to the issue at hand. “I dunno… maybe the whole Angelus thing’s just got me feeling a bit paranoid and I’m picking these out because they’re tuned to my bad mood…”

A sudden scream from upstairs cut off any further conversation between the two of them, prompting them both to drop whatever they were holding- the hairbrush and the cards- and hurry towards the attic, all thoughts of tarot readings forgotten.

* * *

  
As Cole slammed the Lazarus demon against the wall, he once again found himself wishing that he still had access to Belthazor; if nothing else, the demon’s red-skinned appearance had always been far more intimidating that his human one, no matter how much malice he controlled.

“I just did what the Seer told me!” the Lazarus demon protested as Cole glared at him.

“Did she _tell_ you to kill my fiancé?” Cole retorted, his eyes narrowed as he stared at his new minion (A small part of him was still shocked at how easily he was adjusting to his new role). “'Cause that's what you almost did!”

“The Source before you would've rewarded me for killing one of those witches!” the Lazarus demon retorted.

“The _old_ Source,” Cole retorted, placing a heavy emphasis on ‘old’ as he threateningly raised one hand to generate an energy ball, “was reckless, and now he’s dead. You want to follow him into his grave.”

“No,” the Lazarus demon replied simply.

“Then let’s get this straight,” Cole stated, as he lowered his hand, the energy ball vanishing in the process. “You work for me now. Do what I tell you, I guarantee you will never see another cemetery. But hurt my bride again and I will bury you myself.”

With that, he hurled an energy ball at the demon, staring scornfully at it as it crumbled into dust.

“Stay down until I need you,” he said grimly, before he turned to look at the Seer, who was now standing behind him. “And as for you, how _dare_ you unearth a Lazarus demon!”

“We needed a creature that could lure your witch into the cemetery,” the Seer replied casually.

“But a _Lazarus_ demon?” Cole retorted. “We could have just had Angelus sire a couple of vampires in that area; that would have been a bit less _obvious_ -”

“The vampire is too unpredictable; we cannot allow him more leeway than he already possesses,” the Seer retorted, staring grimly at Cole as she spoke. “The witches must believe they are under attack for your plan to work-”

“There’s no _plan_ with Phoebe dead,” Cole retorted. “And you know as well as I do that Angelus isn’t going to be happy if Paige gets caught in the crossfire either; for better or worse, we have to keep both of them alive.”

“I’m beginning to wonder if you can handle your new mantle of power,” the Seer sighed, shaking her head slightly as she studied Cole.

“Are you questioning my leadership?” the former lawyer growled, taking a step towards the Seer as he raised one hand threateningly.

“No,” the Seer replied simply. “You inherited the world's evil; I'll follow that anywhere.”

“But…?” Cole prompted.

“Cole,” the Seer replied simply. “He’s still alive inside you… and not only does he love the witch, but he saw the vampire’s ensouled self as his friend. When you were a demon, his love for her ruined more than one good plan, and with the rogue element of the vampire added, given your past bond with his ‘good’ side…”

“My relationship with Cole is different now,” Cole said, shrugging dismissively; he only thought of himself as ‘Cole’ because he just couldn’t think of himself as ‘the Source’. “Cole’s voice used to scream inside my head, but now it's just a whisper. We can use his feelings to control her-”

“Great plan; did you come up with that before or after I left Paige my little sketch?” a voice said from off to the side. “I mean, _God_ , how did you survive this long with that kinda imagination…?”

“Angelus,” Cole said simply, as he turned around to look at the vampire as he casually leant against the wall of his cave. “May I ask how you got down here?”

“Oh, hitched a lift with a willing demon and then broke his neck; I figured you’d be willing to send me back up afterwards,” Angelus replied, shrugging dismissively as he walked towards Cole. “Just wanted to make sure you guys are clear on the terms of our little… ‘deal’; Paige is _mine_.”

“If this is about your invitation rights having been revoked-” Cole began.

“What, that?” Angelus snorted. “Nah, I’ll get around that somehow; there’s other ways to torment her than just the picture thing anyway. What I _meant_ was the Lazarus demon attack I heard about; Paige came _way_ too close to dying for my liking there, Coley-boy…”

“It won’t be happening again, I can assure you,” Cole replied simply. “I’ve made it clear that the Charmed Ones are _not_ to be harmed until the time is right; Piper may be fair game, but the odds of another sister getting caught in the crossfire are too great for me to risk allowing another attack.”

“Good,” Angelus replied nonchalantly. “Right then, just send me up and I’ll get back to my own plans; OK?”

“Agreed,” Cole said, waving his hand briefly to send his former friend back up to the real world before he shimmered back up himself.

He trusted Angelus to stick to their deal- as much as one demon could _ever_ trust another, of course- but he still wouldn’t care to leave him alone up on Earth unless he _had_ to; what the vampire could dare to try without Cole there to remind him of the consequences he would have shuddered to think if he was the kind to shudder in the first place.

That vampire was making things _remarkably_ more difficult; if it wasn’t for that damn blackmail threat- coupled with the fact that he’d so far evaded every attempt Cole had made to contact _him_ -, Cole would have just killed him already.

But even as he returned to Halliwell Manor, shifting his appearance to resemble Piper and implement the next stage in his plan, he had to wonder if the Seer had a point; did a part of him _want_ Angelus to stay alive out of some hope that Angel- the only person Cole had ever met who could understand his pain- would come back?

He didn’t know.

* * *

  
As Paige blinked her eyes open the next morning, the first thing she registered was that she’d fallen asleep while on demon watch.The second thing was that Phoebe was screaming again.

“ _Look_ at me!” she yelled as she came charging into the hall, waving in frustration at her suddenly pimple-covered face while holding a bottle of what Paige recognised was the face-cream she’d prepared for her sister a few days ago. “What are you trying to do, _deliberately_ screw up my wedding?”

“Hey, I fixed the wedding dress!” Paige retorted; she knew that she should be frustrated at herself for falling asleep, but right now it was just easier to vent her frustration with herself at Phoebe, particularly after she’d only just woken up.

“Yeah, and then you put a mojo on my face cream!” Phoebe retorted, glaring in frustration at her younger sister. “Y’know, if you’ve got something to say, just _say_ it!”

“Uh… pardon?” Paige asked, blinking in confusion.

"Don't think that I don't know how you _really_ feel about Cole!” Phoebe yelled at her, ignoring Piper’s attempts to calm the two of them down.

“HEY!” Paige yelled, glaring at Phoebe. “I dated a _vampire_ , remember? What could I have against that demon?”

“ _Ex-_ demon!” Phoebe insisted.

“What, is that like ex- _convict_?” Paige retorted; Angel may have countered most of her arguments about why she didn’t trust Cole, but if Phoebe wanted her to be honest, she was going to get what she’d asked for and more. “I mean, at least Angel very clearly _wasn’t_ Angelus; Cole still had a soul when he did all that stuff! Just because Angel didn’t _automatically_ become a hero when he got his soul back doesn’t change the fact that he didn’t do _anything_ actually _evil_ after he was cursed-”

“Look, can we just calm down-?” Piper tried to say.

“Face it, Phoebe,” Paige continued, ignoring Piper’s attempts to pacify them as she stared at Phoebe. “This wedding has had nothing but bad omens from the start!”

“And they all seem to be connected with _you_ now, don't they?” Phoebe yelled at Paige. “What is it; you lose _your_ demon boyfriend, so now they’re _all_ going to go bad? Cole is _not_ like Angel; his soul is _going_ to stay where it is-”

“Alright, that's it!!” Piper yelled, stepping forward to force her sisters apart as she stared in frustration at her sisters. “Break it up. You-” she said, glaring at Paige, “go back to your corner, and you-” she continued, glancing over at Phoebe, “you're gonna get ready and we're gonna put lots and lots of makeup on you, you are going to get through this wedding _regardless_ of the pimples, and we are going to _do_ this!”

* * *

  
Looking back on that idea that night at the manor,- the wedding having _finally_ taken place at a small chapel they’d found in the cemetery where they’d buried the demon-, Paige had to wonder how things had managed to go as wrong as they had. If she had ever needed proof of Sod’s Law- or was it Murphy’s Law; she always got those mixed up- that everything that could go wrong would, she’d found it that day. She’d started out with no more challenging a goal than to ensure that her sister’s wedding went according to plan, and now here she was, having just recovered from an invisibility-inducing spell that had gone seriously wrong, with no definite guaranteed culprit behind this whole thing?

 _Geez, and to think I thought that being invisible would be_ cool _when I was growing up_ … Paige groaned to herself, as she sat up, clutching the back of her head where the Lazarus demon’s telekinetic powers had sent her flying during their initial fight. _All I wanted to do was make up for screwing up the wedding earlier with that spell, but_ NOOOO _, the stupid demon who can only die in a churchyard actually tries to attack us in a_ church

She knew that it wasn’t totally unexpected, of course- Angel had told her that vampires’ inability to touch crosses didn’t extend into an inability to enter churches, and there was no reason to assume that demons would be unable to do what vampires could at least _theoretically_ do-, but it still got on her nerves to have things fall apart like this at the last minute. Hell, they’d actually _killed_ the stupid demon, and now the entire wedding had come apart because its attack had forced them to get all the guests out harm’s way?

There were definitely times when she preferred just kicking vampire ass; the suckers may have been physically tougher, but at least you always knew their weaknesses.

Still, she had to admit that it had been infinitely more satisfying seeing that Lazarus guy go down than it had been to see most of the vampires she’d staked collapse back into the dust they’d come from. Maybe it was just because this guy had done more to them than any of the vampires had done- Darla’s attack on Piper and subsequently framing Angel for it notwithstanding, most of the vampires they’d staked had been little more than flunkies-, but seeing him go down _again_ \- this time at the hands of the demon who’d actually _sent_ him because he’d screwed up so badly…

It _really_ made her feel good.

She just wished she could shake the nagging feeling that something still wasn’t _quite_ right with this whole thing. The Seer may have been trying to disrupt the wedding for the reasons she claimed- why Phoebe marrying Cole on a specific day would have any impact on her abilities as a witch Paige didn’t know and couldn’t be bothered figuring out- but something about it didn’t seem _right_ to Paige.

“Still trusting your gut, huh?” a voice said from outside her window. “Good for you; you really don’t see people acting like that often enough these days.”Paige’s eyes widened in shock.

“ _Angelus_?” she yelled incredulously, spinning around to stare in shock at the vampire currently hanging from the window-sill like some weird leather-coat-wearing monkey. “What the _Hell_ are you doing here; we _revoked_ your invitation-”

“What, you thought I’d leave just because I can’t get in any more?” Angelus chuckled slightly as he looked at her. “There’s nothing wrong with a guy wanting to keep up a good relationship with an ex, is there?”

“You’re _not_ my ‘ex’; _we_ never dated,” Paige retorted, trying not to show how much his presence rattled her; in all fairness, she _had_ hoped that he would go away if he wasn’t able to get inside her room again. “I dated _Angel_ , not you-”

“I had a few hickeys from where you got a little… enthusiastic… during our last night together that say different,” Angelus retorted, smirking slightly as he looked at her, prompting a brief blush from Paige before she remembered her resolve and continued to glare at him.

“Look, do you have anything you actually want to _say_ to me, or did you just come here to be a git?” she asked him bluntly.

Angelus chuckled. “Ah, always to the point; one of your best qualities, in my opinion,” he said, before his face became more serious as he stared at her. “Just came to tell you one thing; trust your instincts. More often than not, they’re a _bit_ more reliable in this case than your sisters’ are.”

Before Paige could say anything else, Angelus had jumped down from the window and vanished, leaving her staring bemusedly at the area where he had once been.

 _Huh_ , she mused after a moment’s stillness. That _was weird… did Angelus just give me a_ compliment?

For a moment, she thought that he might have been lying for some reason, but then she remembered something Angel had once told her about his other self; he _never_ lied. He bent the truth to fit his own purposes, but actually lying wasn’t something he did; he either told you just enough of the truth to fit what he wanted you to think, or he didn’t tell you anything.

 _But what did he_ mean _by that_? Paige mused to herself in frustration as she lay back down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling as she turned over what Angelus had just said to her. _Trust my instincts… what could he_ mean _by that?_

The only thing her instincts were telling her right now was that she just couldn’t be entirely comfortable around Cole, and that was only because-

Wait.

Could _that_ be what Angelus was referring to?

Cole?

* * *

  
Outside the mansion, Angelus allowed himself a slight smirk as he studied Paige’s window.

Just because he’d promised not to tell _Phoebe_ about Cole’s recent promotion to Sourcehood didn’t mean he couldn’t let _Paige_ know. She’d start looking at Cole a bit more closely than she might have done otherwise, the sisters would become divided on their opinion of the former Belthazor, the Power of Three would be weakened…

And, of course, Cole would have _no_ proof that he’d done it; he somehow doubted that Paige would tell her sisters about his little visit. After all, he hadn’t been able to get into her room, they couldn’t stop him regularly visiting the window, and Paige could have just ignored him rather than talking to him; she’d probably do that in the future if he tried the same ‘trick’ unless he gave her something interesting to listen to.

 _Oh yeah_ , Angelus chuckled to himself, as he turned around and began to walk back towards his current headquarters. _This is going to be_ very _interesting_ …


	22. Vampires, Witches and Demons- Oh My!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we get to the episode I’ve been looking forward to since I first planned this story; ‘Bite Me’, featuring the ‘Charmed’ version of vampires. In case you’re interested, the events of ‘The Fifth Halliwheel’ and ‘Saving Private Leo’ worked out the same as ever; it’s just that Cole received a _bit_ of a beating from Angelus as a result of him nearly killing Paige and violating their little ‘deal’. This story starts as Paige talks with Piper about kids- the initial battle with the Harpy was pretty much the same as before so I saw no point in writing it- and goes on from there

As Paige walked into the kitchen, still forcing herself back to full consciousness after another relatively peaceful night (If any could call a night dreaming about the man you’d once loved torturing your sisters, even if he wasn’t the same man _spiritually_ any more), she smiled slightly as she saw Piper and Leo kissing; even after everything that had happened to her relationship, it was good to know that _some_ Halliwells could still have a decent break where love was concerned.

“Am I interrupting?” she asked, a slightly teasing grin on her face as her sister and brother-in-law pulled apart.

“Uh…” Leo said, looking sheepishly between his wife and his sister-in-law for a moment before he made a decision, “actually, I need to get going; there's an upsurge in demonic activity and the Elders want to figure out why.”

“Well,” Paige pointed out, resisting the slight urge to tease her sister as she recalled the harpy demon that had attacked them last night, “since that demonic activity spilled into our living room last night, I'm assuming it has something to do us; we’ve been attracting a _lot_ of attention since we took out the Source _and_ the Judge.”

“A point, but we’ll have to wait and see; I’ll let you know if I find anything out,” Leo said, nodding over at Paige before he turned back to look at Piper. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Piper replied, leaving over to kiss him briefly before he orbed out once again.

“You OK?” Paige asked, looking inquiringly over at Piper; something about her sister seemed a little… _off_ to her.

“Me?” Piper asked, shrugging dismissively. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Liar,” Paige said, smiling slightly at her eldest sister before her face became more serious. “Look, I know I’m not Phoebe, but I’m still your sister; after all the times you’ve listened to _me_ since Angel’s soul went AWOL and I felt like beating myself up about it, I think it’s only fair that you talk to _me_ now.”

“It's… it's just a silly little thing, really,” Piper admitted after a moment’s pause. “My… uh… period was late this month by a couple of days, and I _guess_ I got my hopes up a little.”

“That's not silly!” Paige began reassuringly, before a thought occurred to her and she looked anxiously at Piper once more. “You _do_ still want kids, right?”

“Yeah, of course,” Piper said, nodding reassuringly at Paige before she sighed in frustration. “It’s just that we’ve been trying…”

“For a couple of months, right?” Paige asked, looking inquiringly at Piper for confirmation.

“Four,” Piper responded, before she shook her head. “But who’s counting really?”

“Hey, it’s not like you’re baking cookies here; it’ll take time,” Paige said, reaching over to pat her sister reassuringly on the shoulder, once again trying not to think about how, even if Angel hadn’t had that curse on his soul, she and him would _never_ have been able to have this kind of conversation…

“Yeah… I know…” Piper sighed, shaking her head slightly as she sat down. “I guess I was just worried that something could be wrong. Getting flung around by demons isn't exactly conducive to making babies…”

“OK,” Paige said, raising two fingers as she looked resolutely at her oldest sister, “A: You’re going to have kids, you saw that in your future, and B: I am living proof that magic happens when Whitelighters and witches get together. So the sooner you stop worrying about it, the sooner I will be an aunt and everyone’s happy.”

“Thanks,” Piper said, smiling back at her, before she glanced at her watch and sighed. “Anyway, I’d better get down to the club; we’ve got a new band coming in and I need to make sure everything’s ready for them.”

“Right-o,” Paige said, smiling slightly at Piper as she stood up herself. “I’ll join you in a bit; just got a couple of things I’d like to attend to first.”

* * *

  
As Cole heard the identity of his next appointment as the Source, he couldn’t stop himself from grimacing slightly; as if Angelus wasn’t enough of a pain, now he had the _Draculas_ wanting to get back into the game?

Vampires had long been divided into various classes according to their powers and abilities among the demon world, with Angel’s class being known simply as the ‘Soulless’ due to the obvious fact that they lacked their souls but were, apart from that, essentially simply enhanced humans. The ‘Warrior’ class- so-called because of their long-standing blood feud with the werewolf race with which they shared a common beginning- typically stayed away from the magical world, their unique biology being accounted for by more scientific methods than their supernatural-based ‘cousins’, and had long operated independent of the rest of the magical world, but these vampires…

Despite his own powers, Cole shuddered at the thought of them.

These vampires were the ones that most closely matched the powers humans had believed all vampires possessed ever since Bram Stoker originally published _Dracula_ , given that they could turn into bats and fly away whenever they wanted to; strength-wise, they were essentially the same as the Soulless, but the bat ability made them more than slightly more dangerous.

Quite frankly, Cole had little to no real time for them. It was hard enough dealing with Angelus and his ilk without having to worry about these pains in the neck (No pun intended because it would have been a terrible one anyway); at least Angelus couldn’t turn into a bat and spy on him _that_ way…

But, since the Vampire Queen’s representative was here anyway, he might as well talk to him and get the matter out of the way.

“Send him in,” he said casually to his secretary- Julie, he vaguely recalled her name was.

Nodding briefly, Julie pointed to the blinds, which automatically closed, leaving the room without a single shred of sunlight.

“He’ll see you now,” she said casually, before she flamed out, leaving a tall figure in a suit to walk out of the corner where he’d been standing.

“Thank you for the audience,” he said, inclining his head slightly as he looked at Cole before he continued to speak. “The Queen sent me to-”

“You can tell your _Queen_ ,” Cole retorted, staring resolutely at the man before him, “that if she steps a foot inside my realm, she’ll beg me to banish her again.”

“She sent me to tell you,” Rowan continued, apparently trying to ignore Cole’s statement, “that we’ve that learnt our lesson, and we're willing to serve you.”

“No thanks,” Cole retorted, staring grimly at his opponent. “I’ve already got enough vampire-related headaches without adding your class in; I don’t need any more.”

“You haven’t even heard our offer…” Rowan began once again.

“I think you should leave now,” Cole retorted, sitting back in his chair as he stared grimly at the vampire before him. Rowan had just opened his mouth to reply when Paige suddenly walked through the door to the rest of the apartment; she must have orbed in while he was talking.

“Paige,” he said, trying to sound neutral even as he inwardly fumed; the _one_ sister he _had_ to be careful with if he was to stay on Angelus’s good side- Phoebe was a matter of personal choice rather than necessity and nobody whose opinion immediately mattered to him minded what happened to Piper-, and here she was, right as he was confronting a one of his most dangerous would-be ‘allies’.

“Oops,” Paige said, looking slightly sheepishly over at Rowan. “Just thought I’d… pop in.”

“From where?” Rowan asked.

“Uh… the kitchen,” Paige replied, waving her hand over at the door she’d just entered by, before she looked curiously at the two men. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“No, we’re done here,” Cole said casually, as he glanced back at Rowan, grateful beyond words for the opportunity to cut this meeting short. “Elevator’s that way, Rowan.”

As soon as the vampire had departed the room- there was no sense in blowing anybody’s cover, even if Rowan knew who Paige was by reputation alone already-, Cole stood up and glared in frustration at Paige, clenching his fists even as he came up with a plausible cover story for the current lighting condition in his office.

“What the _Hell_ do you think you’re doing?” he yelled at her, gritting his teeth as he stared at the Whitelighter/witch hybrid. “This is _exactly_ why I don’t want you people orbing in here!”

“‘You people’?” Paige replied, shaking her head slightly. “Nice attitude to have towards your in-laws…”

“What do you _want_?” Cole growled at her.

“Phoebe,” Paige replied. “I think Piper needs to talk to her.”“Well, you missed her,” Cole retorted, shrugging dismissively. “But why don't you orb on over to the newspaper; I'm sure those _journalists_ can keep a secret!”

“Just… tell her I stopped by, OK?” Paige sighed, shaking her head dismissively as she turned towards the door- clearly deciding to maintain cover by leaving the apartment a more conventional way than she’d arrived in- before she turned back to look curiously at the new Source. “And I gotta ask, why is it so dark in here in the middle of the day?”

“Migraine,” Cole growled in reply, raising one hand to clutch at his head as he stared at her. “Which you’re only _adding_ to right now, I might add…”

“ _Fine_ ,” Paige groaned, as she turned to walk towards the door. “You know what, Cole? Just bite me.”

* * *

  
As Paige stormed out of the apartment, inwardly fuming at Cole’s attitude- just _once_ , could he _not_ act like she was in the wrong for wanting to get in touch with her sister?-, she was just in time to see the doors to the elevator down to the ground open, Cole’s previous appointment standing in front of the door.

“After you,” he said politely, indicating the elevator before him. Nodding briefly in thanks, Paige walked into the elevator, followed by the man behind her before the doors closed.

“Nice guy, huh?” he said casually, indicating the door in front of him. “Cole, I mean.”

“You a lawyer?” Paige asked, turning to look critically at him.

“No,” the man replied. “Why?”

“Because only another lawyer would think that,” Paige replied by way of explanation.

“No,” the man replied, shaking his head. “I was being sarcastic.”

“About being a lawyer?” Paige asked.

“No,” the man replied, shaking his head at her with a slight smile. “About thinking he was a nice guy.”

Under any other circumstances, Paige might have laughed, but as it was, with her last boyfriend currently having turned into a homicidal maniac who was determined to kill her and her sisters because of something she’d done, she wasn’t really in the mood. As it was, she just sighed and shook her head slightly as she continued down in the elevator, until the man spoke again.

“I’m Rowan,” he said, offering her his hand.

“Paige,” she replied, casually shaking his hand; she had no desire to appear impolite, but she equally didn’t want to give this guy any kind of impression that she was looking for anything from him but a casual acquaintance. “So, how long have you disliked Cole?”

“Since I met him,” Rowan replied, shrugging casually. “You?”

“Uh, pretty much since he married my sister,” Paige replied, which was true enough; she’d been coping with Cole’s presence before Angel had lost his soul, which had occurred shortly before the wedding, but their already-fragile relationship had pretty much gone downhill since then. “You have any siblings?”

“Oh yeah,” Rowan said, nodding in confirmation. “My family’s _real_ big.”

“Then you know what it’s like to have to bite your tongue, huh?” Paige asked, smiling slightly.

“Oh, been there done that,” Rowan nodded, just as the elevator stopped and the doors opened. “Listen, uh, I’d like to continue this but we just ran out of floors. Any chance we could… get together?”

For a moment, as Paige looked at him, she was almost tempted to say ‘Yes’…

Then the handsome-yet-terrifying face of Angelus popped up from her memory, and she knew that she couldn’t do it; until Angelus was dealt with, dating anybody else wouldn’t just be a betrayal of Angel’s memory, it would give his demon somebody else to go after.

“Sorry, but that’s… not really possible,” she said, shaking her head as she looked apologetically back at Rowan. “I just got out of a _really_ serious relationship- things went really wrong for reasons that I can’t really explain- and I’m… well, I’m not in the ‘dating place’ yet, if you know what I mean…”

“Ah, say no more,” Rowan said, raising one hand and nodding in understanding. “I get what you’re saying; don’t want to make me just the ‘rebound guy’, huh?”

“Yeah, exactly,” Paige said, nodding gratefully at him before she stepped out of the elevator, only realising after she was a few steps away that he’d remained where he was. “Aren’t you getting off here?”

“Oh, no; I’m in the underground parking area,” Rowan replied, as he pressed a button inside the elevator once again. “I’ll see you around.”

As the doors closed in front of her, after glancing around to make sure there were no cameras that could see her, Paige closed her eyes and orbed out of the room, determined to get home and take some time out before going out to P3 tonight.

Angelus was an issue, but she was _not_ going to let him define her life; just because she couldn’t have a date with a guy didn’t mean she couldn’t have a bit of fun with people at the club itself, as far as she was concerned.

* * *

  
A few hours later, Paige sat in her usual place at P3, casually sipping at a drink as she stared listless at her surroundings.

She should have _known_ something was going to go wrong with her plan; it had been the first time she’d come to P3 to try and actively _forget_ Angel- every other time she’d just come here to spend time with her sisters and have fun- and she automatically found herself practically incapable of doing _anything_ with a guy without feeling like she was stamping on Angel’s memory.

“Problem?” Piper’s voice asked from off to the side, breaking into Paige’s train of thought.

“Mmm? Oh, just the usual,” Paige sighed, shrugging slightly as she slumped back in her chair. “Missing Angel, wishing I had a boyfriend, wishing I could just get back into the dating game without worying that the guy who’s technically my ex would rip their throats out just to get to me… y’know, the usual.”

“ _Technically_ your ex?” Leo asked, as he and Pipre sat down beside Paige.

“Angelus doesn’t have a soul; ergo, I didn’t date _him_ , I just dated his body,” Paige stated simply. “I count that as a technicality, wouldn’t you?”

Piper had just finished nodding in agreement when Phoebe walked over to them, smiling casually at the three of them despite her slightly pale appearance.

“Hi,” she asked, looking over at Piper with a slight smile as she indicated the bar. “Do I still get free drinks here or do I have to pay now?”

“You OK?” Piper asked, looking anxiously at her sister. “No offence, but you’re looking a bit too much like Drusilla for comfort- with the paleness, that is, not the madness.”

“That's partly why I'm here,” Phoebe sighed, as she sat down beside her sisters, Leo moving away slightly to let them sit closer together. “I thought it was just a bug and now I'm not so sure. So I'm wondering if maybe it has something to do with, you know… the scratch.”

“What, you mean you’re turning _into_ a Harpy?” Paige asked, looking critically at her sister before she glanced over at Piper. “Would that even be possible?”

“Well, Piper turned into the Wendigo that way,” Phoebe shrugged, before looking over at Piper uncertainly. “Or was it the fury?”

“I’ve turned into so many things, it’s hard to keep track any more,” Piper shrugged.

“I wouldn’t worry,” Leo put in, looking reassuringly at Phoebe. “You can’t turn into a Harpy just by getting scratched.”

“Yeah, but still, do you know mind, you know…?” Phoebe asked, waving her hand uncertainly as she indicated herself.

Nodding, Leo moved his hands towards Phoebe’s shoulder, but Piper stopped him before he could reach it.

“Hey, hey, hey, a little discretion in public, OK?” she hissed at her husband, slapping him lightly on the arm. “Let’s just get to the back room and attend to it in private, got me?”

“Oh… right,” Leo said, shaking his head apologetically as they stood up and headed towards the back room of the club, followed closely by the other sisters. As soon as they were out of sight of the general public, Leo raised his hand to Phoebe’s shoulder, a brief golden glow surrounding his hand and the wound before it vanished once more.

“Feel any better?” Leo asked her.

Looking at her shoulder, Phoebe flexed it once or twice to test it, and then smiled.

“A little… I think,” she said, nodding in confirmation. “Thanks.”

“So,” Piper asked, looking back at Leo, “now that we’ve got that out of the way, any word from the Elders on what’s going on with the mass of demon attacks recently?”

“Nothing yet,” Leo said, shaking his head apologetically.

“Mass of demon attacks?” Phoebe said, looking uncertainly at her sisters. “What, like we don’t have _enough_ to be going on with, what with Angelus and all?”

“Look, it’s nothing major; we were thinking of talking about it once we’ve had dinner,” Piper shrugged casually, before looking inquiringly at Phoebe. “Talking of which, care to join us?”

“Um… OK,” Phoebe said, shrugging at the prospect. “Why not?”

“Nah, I’m gonna go,” Paige shrugged, indicating the door. “I just feel like having a quiet night in, you know?”

“Well… if you’re sure,” Piper said, sighing as she glanced over at Leo. “You buying?”

“You kidding?” Leo chuckled, as he left the room, leaving Phoebe and Paige alone in the room.

“Oh, Phoebe,” Paige said, looking slightly uncertainly at her sister- things had just been getting increasingly awkward between the two of them since Paige had admitted to her current inability to trust Cole-, “I, uh, I think you should try to find a moment to talk to Piper.”

“Why?” Phoebe asked, looking curiously at Paige. “Is something wrong?”

“No, not really,” Paige said, shaking her head reassuringly. “I just think she could use your support about something. That's why I orbed over to your place this morning-”

“Wait, you orbed over to my place?” Phoebe said, staring at Paige in frustration. “After I specifically asked you _not_ to? Paige, what were you _thinking_ ; you can’t just orb over there whenever you feel like it!

“I was _just_ trying to help Piper!” Paige retorted.

“Was Cole upset?” Phoebe asked, placing her hands on her hips as she glared at her sister.

“A _little_ …” Paige admitted, before she sighed and shook her head. “OK, a _lot_.”

“Great, Paige; just _great_ ,” Phoebe groaned, as she stared in frustration up at the ceiling before looking back at her sister. “Y’know, I tried to accept Angel despite the fact that he was a two hundred and fifty-year-old _corpse_ -”

“Will you _stop_ focusing on the whole thing about him being technically dead?” Paige retorted, walking forward to glare directly at Phoebe.

“Why should I; _you_ can’t get over the fact that Cole _used_ to be a demon!” Phoebe yelled back, folding her arms as she met Paige’s glare with one of her own. “He’s _human_ now-”

“He still had his _soul_ when he did all that; can you honestly say that doesn’t make you even a _bit_ nervous?” Paige yelled back, before she groaned and headed for the door. “You know what, forget it; I’m _out_ of here!”

As Paige stormed out of the club, heading directly for the door before her, she tried not to think too much about the little ‘argument’ she and Phoebe had just had. She knew she’d been more than a bit harsh- she’d already made her opinion about Cole’s ‘redemption’ when compared to Angel’s clear, and saying it again was never likely to do more than get Phoebe angry-, but she couldn’t help it.

She just could _not_ bring herself to accept that Angel couldn’t get rid of his past demons after almost a century, and Cole seemed to have escaped his demonic history after only a year of humanity.

It may have been harsh, but there it was; Angel hadn’t been able to escape his demonic past for some time after regaining his soul, and she strongly doubted that Cole had been that much luckier just because he’d gone all the way and regained his _humanity_.

 _I just wish there was a way I could phrase that_ without _sounding like a jealous bitch_ … Paige groaned as she left the club’s doors and began to walk towards her car…

Only to hear a faint… screech… as she approached it.

“Huh?” she said, turning around, just in time to see a bat- an actual _bat_ \- flying towards her, diving down to bite her briefly before flying away once more. Paige had barely opened her mouth to yell after it before a second bat flew past her, then another, then another, and another…

Terrified and shocked at what was happening- Angel had told her often that the whole ‘vampires turning into bats’ thing was nothing more than a myth-, Paige fell to the ground, trying desperately to drive the bats back, too scared to even think about orbing away…

Then, just before she passed out, she felt the bats flying away from her, leaving her to slip into blackness on her own


	23. Occurrences of a Vamp-Related Nature

As Paige sat up in her hospital bed, inwardly fuming over this latest bizarre turn of events- like she didn’t have enough trouble with _real_ vampires, now she had freakin’ _bats_ to worry about?- she barely even registered the presence of the doctor beside her bed until he’d been there for a good few minutes.

“So,” she asked him, turning to look inquiringly at the man in question, “am I the weirdest case you’ve ever seen?”

“I don’t know,” the doctor replied, shaking his head slightly as he looked back at her. “I’ve worked the night shift for a while now; seen some pretty strange things.”

“Yeah, but these were _bats_ , doc,” Paige pointed out.

Before the doctor could reply to that, the door opened and Piper, Phoebe and Leo raced into the room, looking anxiously at the bed.

“ _Paige_!” Piper yelled, hurrying over to give Paige a brief one-armed hug before she leaned back once again. “Are you OK? What happened?”

“Bats,” Paige replied simply. “Lots of bats.”

“You’d be her sisters, I take it?” the doctor asked, looking inquiringly at Piper and Phoebe.”

“Yeah,” Phoebe replied, nodding in confirmation at the doctor. “Is she going to be all right?”

“Honestly?” the doctor replied, shaking his head slightly as he indicated the chart in his hands. “If she hadn’t been found by somebody in time, she might’ve bled to death.

“But she’s going to be OK?” Leo asked anxiously.“Of course,” the doctor said, nodding reassuringly at the Whitelighter. “All she needs is some rest and rabies’ shots, and she’ll be fine.”

“ _Ouch_ ,” Paige winced, rubbing her arm as she reflected on what the needle would feel like.

“Hold on; you got attacked by _bats_ outside of my _club_?” Piper said, looking in confusion at her sister. “That can’t be natural, can it?”

“Well, bat bites aren't completely unheard of in this city,” the doctor pointed out. “I have a friend over at county, he treated one a couple of months ago.”

“Right, but these were bats, _plural_ ,” Paige pointed out.

Before the doctor could reply to that, his pager beeped, prompting him to glance inside his coat and sigh slightly before turning back to look at them.

“I’ll be right back,” he said apologetically. “Excuse me.”

As soon as he’d left the room, the sisters and Leo were finally free to discuss the current issue at length.

“You know, he’s right; putting aside the oddity of the whole thing, it does seem more natural than supernatural,” Leo said.

“You think that I don’t _know_ it doesn’t make sense?” Paige groaned, as she lay back in her bead once again. “If it wasn’t for the fact that Angel told me the whole ‘bat’ thing is just a load of the proverbial dingo’s kidneys, I’d be thinking vampires, but as it is…”

She shrugged. “Quite frankly, I’m stumped.”

“Actually…” Leo said, looking slightly sheepishly at the sisters, “there _are_ other branches of vampires that could do that.”

Paige blinked.

“E- _Excuse_ me?” she said, staring incredulously at her brother-in-law. “There are _other_ vampires out there- _besides_ Angel’s kind, that is- and you never _mentioned_ it?”

“Well, in my defence, you were unlikely to ever _encounter_ the other three,” Leo explained. “The Kingdom and the Warrior class generally stay out of the supernatural world- the Kingdom’s a totally independent civilisation with their own rules and the Warriors typically live among humans and are more concerned about their war with the werewolves that they share an origin with-, and the Dracula-class- the kind we’re probably dealing with here- have been ostracized from the underworld for centuries. As far as I know they're apart of a whole different network now; they’d have no _reason_ to go after you.”

“If I learned anything from Angelus, it’s that the motives of vampires like that can be… complicated,” Paige pointed out, looking pointedly at her brother-in-law. “The way I see it, we’ve at least got to _consider_ -”

Before Paige could complete that particular sentence, the doctor who’d been examining her earlier walked back in, followed by a nurse holding a syringe.

“I’m sorry,” the doctor said, looking at Paige apologetically, “but Lisa here is going to need to draw some blood so we can run some tests.”

“That mean I can go home?” Paige asked anxiously. With Angelus currently active, she really wasn’t willing to spend any more time in a public access building than absolutely necessary; she wasn’t sure if the ‘invitation required’ thing would allow him to get into a hospital when visiting hours were over and _nobody_ was allowed in, but she’d rather not have to find out.

“I don’t see why not,” the doctor said, as the nurse rolled up the sleeve of Paige’s gown and prepared the needle. “I’ll get you started on antibiotics and we've scheduled first of the rabies shots in the morning.”

“OK,” the nurse said, inserting the needle into Paige’s arm as the doctor departed the room, “make a fist. Relax your hand now… almost done…”

Even after it had happened, Paige was still never entirely clear on _why_ Phoebe suddenly fainted as blood was being drawn from her arm for the doctors to examine.

* * *

  
“Damn it…” Cole groaned, glancing at his watch as he paced in his apartment; Phoebe should have been back almost an hour ago. “Where _is_ she?”

“What about the Grimlocks?” his secretary asked, breaking into his train of thought.

“The Grimlocks?” Cole said, looking sharply up at her. “You think _they_ attacked her? If they did, I’ll crush their skulls with my bare _hands_ …”

“Who said romance is dead?” the secretary- Julie, he now recalled her name was- said, rolling her eyes as she looked critically at him. “We were talking about who we can _trust_ , remember? Grimlocks; yay or nay?”

“I’m sorry,” Cole said, shaking his head as he thought for a moment. “Uh… yeah, Grimlocks are OK; Keats is the only one I don’t trust.”

“You _trust_ Angelus?” Julie asked, looking in surprise at him; she knew better than most that the current Source’s relationship with the former Scourge of Europe was… difficult… even at its most simplistic level.

Cole shrugged. “I trust him not to give me away; we both get that it’s easier having each other as allies than as enemies,” he said by way of explanation. “There’s a difference-”

Before he could finish the sentence, the phone rang; if Cole had moved towards it any faster, he would have needed to have shimmered to do so.

“This has _got_ to be her,” he said, as he picked up the phone.

“We can only hope…” Julie muttered, as Cole pressed the ‘Accept Call’ button and held the phone to his ear.

“Phoebe?” he said anxiously.

“ _Hi, honey_ ,” Phoebe replied, prompting a relieved smile from Cole; at least _something_ was going right…

“Are you all right?” he asked anxiously. “I called your cell, but you didn’t pick up.”

“ _Yeah_ …” Phoebe said, sounding slightly uncomfortable, “ _well… that’s because I was_ probably _unconscious_.”

“What?” Cole said, his mind already racing to prepare a suitably painful revenge for whatever demon had contradicted his orders regarding the Charmed Ones. “Did a demon hurt you?”

“ _No_ ,” Phoebe assured him. “ _It was nothing like that; I just… uh… fainted_.”

“Fainted?” Cole repeated sceptically.

“ _Yeah_ ,” Phoebe said dismissively. “ _It wasn’t a big deal, really_.”

“ _Phoebe_ …” Cole groaned, as he rubbed one hand against his forehead, “people don’t just _faint_ for no reason.”

“ _Well_ ,” Phoebe said, shrugging slightly, “ _I've been pretty run down, and the doctor said I might be anaemic, so he took some blood to make sure that's all it is_.”

“Well…” Cole replied, pausing for a moment to come up with a possible alternative explanation before he finally spoke, “maybe you ought to get Leo to check that Harpi scratch, just in case-”

“I already did and he said there's nothing to worry about,” Phoebe replied, before she sighed. “ _Besides, we have bigger demonic issues that we have to deal with right now; Paige was bitten by a bunch of bats_.”

Cole blinked in shock.

“Bats?” he repeated. “Are you sure?”

“ _Yeah_ ,” Phoebe replied. “ _She’s OK; Leo’s going to heal her when we get home_.”

Cole raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise; he had a good idea what she meant by that last comment, but he still felt irked that she was still thinking of the _manor_ as home rather than their apartment.

“I _am_ home, Phoebe,” he pointed out. “You called _me_.”

“ _I meant the manor_ ,” Phoebe clarified. “ _I’m sorry_.”

After a moment’s reflection, Cole decided not to press that particular issue right now; it didn’t serve any purpose, and getting Phoebe angry at him before the child had been conceived that the Seer had prophesised would result from their union.

“I’m on my way,” he said grimly, before he terminated the call, clasping his desk as he made a brief-but-admittedly-futile attempt to contain his anger.

“You think it was Rowan?” Julie asked, looking inquiringly at her.

“He must have been trying to turn her,” Cole said grimly.

“You _can’t_ let them get a Charmed One on their side,” Juile said. “They'll be too powerful-”

“Plus, of course,” a voice said from outside the apartment, “it _would_ negate our little… deal… if Paige died on us, wouldn’t it?”

Cole blinked in surprise, and then wondered why he was even surprised any more; after all he’d heard about Angelus’s skills, he should be _over_ -estimating the vampire rather than _under_ -estimating him just to be on the safe side.

“What are _you_ doing here?” he sighed, as he turned to look at the vampire as he casually leaned against the door of the apartment; never before had Cole wished so strongly that the ‘no-access-without-invitation’ rule for vampires extended to gaining access to demon’s homes as well as to humans.

“Oh, just thought I’d drop in on an old friend and ask after the well-being of my ex,” Angelus said, chuckling slightly before his eyes narrowed as he glared at Cole. “Talking of which, I have to ask; did you think having a bunch of Dracula wanna-bes turn her was a _compromise_ on our deal? Y’know, you turn her into _your_ kind of vampire so I don’t technically have any _grounds_ to complain or something like-”

“If you _ever_ imply I would work with those backstabbing bloodsuckers _again_ , Angelus,” Cole growled, standing up to glare at his human side’s old friend, “I don’t care _what_ you do to me afterwards; I _will_ chain you on a rooftop and leave you for the sun to find the next morning. Understand?”

“Right,” Angelus said, nodding briefly at Cole before a slight smirk crossed his face once again. “So… since this vamp thing _isn’t_ one of your plans, it wouldn’t be violating our truce if I staked her, huh?”

“And you’d pull that off _how_ exactly?” Cole asked, staring critically at Angelus. “I don’t think it’s escaped your attention that you’re not a match for a Dracula-class in a one-on-one fight; if nothing else, they _do_ have a few little tricks up their sleeves that you can’t do…”

“True,” Angelus retorted, folding his arms as he continued smirking at the Source. “Which is the reason I’ll be talking to the Halliwells about getting a bit of help in taking on that Queen.”

Cole blinked, stunned into silence for a moment, before he finally spoke.

“Are you _insane_?” he said, looking critically at the vampire. “They’d stake you as soon as you come _near_ them-”

“When I’m the only person available who can go toe-to-toe with these guys and have even a _chance_ of walking away?” Angelus retorted, looking critically at his old friend. “You know as well as I do that nothing less than the Power of Three will work on those guys if the Halliwells try and take them on in a magical fight; unless _you_ want to blow your cover, they’ll need my help to take that bitch out.”

“And if you can’t save Paige?” Cole inquired, folding his arms as he glared at the vampire. “You’ll… what? Kill me? Expose me?”

“Depends,” Angelus replied, assuming an equally nonchalant manner as he glared back at the Source. “Since, based on what I heard, these guys did this _without_ your OK, I might be tempted to let this go by _without_ exposing your little secret identity to your surviving dear sister-in-law…”

As he spoke, he shifted into his vampire appearance, continuing to glare at Cole as he spoke. “But remember; if Paige dies, you lose the only reason for me _not_ to kill Phoebe. Clear?”

“So long as you keep _my_ secret, we have a deal,” Cole replied, inclining his head slightly at Angelus- the closest he would ever come to a handshake with this man- before he turned to look at Julie. “Gather the faction leaders; if the queen _wants_ a war, she's _got_ one.”

“Right…” Julie said, looking sceptically over at Angelus before she turned back to look at Cole, evidently deciding that it was the Source’s choice if he wanted to include the Scourge of Europe in his ‘plans’. “Where are you going?”

“The Manor,” Cole replied, looking back over at Angelus. “We… have to save… Paige.”

“Aw, can’t you be a _little_ more enthusiastic about that?” Angelus asked, smirking slightly at Cole as Julie departed. “She _is_ the only reason nobody knows about you from me yet…”

“Don’t push it,” Cole said grimly as he stood up and walked away from the desk. “See you at the Manor,” he said grimly before he shimmered away, leaving Angelus to walk out of the room and head for the stairs that would take him out of the building once again.

* * *

  
As Cole walked through the doorway of Halliwell Manor a few hours later, he couldn’t help but wonder how it had all come to this. One minute he had all his allies under control- Angelus was a trickier card to play than most demons, of course, but he liked to think he’d found a decent balance between what the vampire wanted without giving him what Paige’s ex-boyfriend would _need_ if he was going to kill him somehow-, and the next a stupid Dracula-class vampire seemed to have attacked a Charmed One, and if it wasn’t because of his refusal of them he’d be _very_ surprised.

 _Ah well_ , he mused to himself as he walked up the stairs towards the attic, _if I’m going to get rid of an enemy, I might as well go for the larger one and see what I can tell them about the vampires without giving away what I_ really _know_.

Besides, as much as he might want Paige out of his way at times, he wasn’t willing to risk calling Angelus’s ‘bluff’- if it had been, of course; he had no way of knowing for sure if Angelus was being honest about his threat or not- and have the vampire expose his true nature yet if he allowed Paige to fall victim to the ‘Dracula class’.

Of course, there was also the issue of the vampires gaining the power of a Charmed One to take into account, but Cole personally doubted that even that power would be enough against him now; he was more concerned about his secret being exposed before he had conceived a child with Phoebe.

Putting those thoughts aside for the moment, he walked up the ladder into the attic, smiling slightly at his wife as she turned to look at him.

“Cole!” she said, relieved.

“Honey,” Cole smiled, allowing his soul some slight freedom as he hugged her. “I came as soon as I could…”

“I’ll be fine,” Phoebe smiled, pulling back from him to look him in the eyes. “Don’t worry.”

Glancing around himself, Cole raised his eyes as he noticed the absence of the half-Whitelighter from the room.

“How’s Paige?” he asked, looking back at the others. “Where is she?”

“She’s sleeping,” Leo clarified. “I healed her-”

“Are you sure?” Cole asked, looking critically at his brother-in-law.

“Yeah…” Leo said, nodding in confusion as he looked at Cole. “Why?”

“Do you know what we’re up against?” Piper asked, looking inquiringly at him.

“Well,” Cole said, smiling slightly over at Piper, “bats that bite can mean only one thing; vampires.”

“Uh…” Piper said, looking uncertainly at him, “y’know, Leo mentioned the _other_ kinds of vampires, but we’ve already ruled them out; this just doesn’t fit their M.O. I mean, Angelus couldn’t have brought them in, they don’t work with demons, and why would they _want_ to draw our attention?”

“Look, I’ve deal with these vampires before,” Cole said, looking over resolutely at the oldest Charmed One as he spoke. “You can trust me; this is almost certainly them.”

“Wait a minute; you dealt with vampires as a demon?” Leo said, looking in confusion at Cole. “How is that possible; I thought they were pariahs in the underworld?”

“Well,” Cole said, shrugging casually as he told his cover story, “I wasn't too picky who I dealt with. I didn't care that the Source had banished them for selling him out to his enemies.”

“Look, even if it _is_ them, why would they attack a Charmed One now?” Phoebe asked, looking anxiously at him. “Can’t you think why they’d be after Paige?”

“Well…” Cole mused, trying to sound convincingly uncertain before he finally spoke. “There must be a power struggle since the old Source fell; they must be trying to overtake the underworld.”

“By killing Paige?” Phoebe said.

“No,” Cole countered, shaking his head grimly as he looked over at his wife. “By turning her into _their_ kind of vampire.”

Piper’s eyes widened in horror at that statement.

“ _PAIGE_!” she yelled, before she hurtled down the stairs, closely followed by the other three. As Piper tore the door to Paige’s room open, for a moment even Cole’s heightened vision could see nothing but darkness, but then Piper turned on the light and Cole’s eyes immediately saw Paige hanging upside-down from the ceiling.

“Oh my god… Paige!” Phoebe screamed.

Instantly, Paige’s eyes popped open, her body suddenly shrank down, and she turned into a bat right before their eyes.

“Watch out!” Cole yelled, yanking Phoebe out of bat-Paige’s path as she flew out of the window.

 _Great_ … Cole groaned, as the small bat vanished into the night, taking away any chance he had of limiting the risk to Paige being trapped that way.

There was no other way to put it; he was in _serious_ trouble with Angelus now…

* * *

  
“OK,” Phoebe said, looking anxiously at the others a few hours later as she tipped the vampire-hunting equipment Paige and Angel had put together for them all before Angel had lost his soul, “that’s everything we’ve got available; stakes, holy water, crucifixes, garlic- Paige always said that Angel had never been entirely clear on if that actually _does_ anything to them, but she told me that she felt it was better safe than sorry-, the works; we’re as ready as we’ll ever be to play with the big guns.”

“Firstly,” Cole pointed out from where he stood at the door to the kitchen, “Angelus would probably take offence to that- the Dracula class have never managed to get along with the other vampires out there-, and secondly, you _are_ aware that all this stuff’s only going to help you fight them; it won’t let you change Paige back.”

“Yeah, I’m working on that,” Piper interjected, looking over at the others. “According to the Book of Shadows, if you kill a vampire queen- of the Dracula class, of course; it doesn’t apply for any other type of vampire-, all of her little vampires die with her.”

“Really?” Cole said, looking over at her in an intrigued manner. “Interesting… they certainly don’t like to spread _that_ around.”

“Yeah, uh, aren’t we forgetting something?” Phoebe pointed out, raising a hand anxiously. “That’d _kinda_ kill Paige too, wouldn’t it?”

“Not if she hasn’t bitten anyone,” Piper said, smiling over at Phoebe. “Apparently, for these guys, it isn’t as simple to turn someone as it is for Angelus’s lot; the transformation’s only permanent once they drink from an innocent victim themselves.”

“So we have to kill the Queen fast, huh?” Phoebe asked, grinning eagerly at Piper. “How do we vanquish _her_?”

“Uh… the Power of Three,” Piper admitted, prompting Phoebe’s eager grin to vanish.

“Of _course_ …” she groaned, slumping back in her chair as she looked up at the ceiling. “Can’t _anything_ be easy?”

“Hey, you think _that’s_ bad; how about the fact that they’re _totally_ immune to witchy powers?” Piper put in, groaning as she leaned forward, her chin in her hand as she stared in frustration in front of her. “At least Angelus and that actually _can_ be frozen or blown up or whatever; we can’t even do _that_ to these guys…”

After a moment’s silence, Leo stood up.

“Well, I’ll go and fill the Elders in about the new Source and see if they have anything else we might be able to use right now,” he said, looking back at his wife. “I’ll try and be back soon.”

With that, he orbed out, leaving Cole to look suddenly shocked as he looked over at Piper and Phoebe.

“New Source?” he said, slightly incredulously. “There’s a _new_ Source?”

“Yeah, we think so,” Phoebe replied.

“Any ideas who?” Cole asked, an anxious tone in his voice (One that Piper understood, of course; after the last Source had died, he’d probably hoped that he’d be able to avoid having another Source after his blood this quickly).“Nothing yet, but I think Paige should be our top priority right now,” she put in, before looking back over at Phoebe. “OK, since this type of vampire, unlike Angelus and Co., prefer to _not_ keep up with the times and do things the way they’ve always done them, I say we check out the cemetery first; it’s a bit cliché, but sometimes those places got that way for a reason.”

“Well, we’ve got little time and a bunch of them to check out,” Phoebe said, standing up and looking resolutely at Piper. “Let’s go.”

“Whoa,” Cole said, walking forward to look anxiously at his wife. “Phoebe, I don't want you to go.”

“What?” Phoebe said, looking incredulously at her husband.

“Well… it’s too dangerous,” Cole explained, prompting Piper to wonder if she should leave the room before things became any more awkward. “What happens if you faint again, but this time in the middle of a vampire attack?”

“That’s not going to happen,” Phoebe replied bluntly.

“How can you be _sure_?” Cole asked, stepping forward slightly to look anxiously at his wife as he raised one hand to touch her cheek. “I don’t want to lose you-”

“And _I_ don’t want to lose Paige,” Phoebe retorted, stepping resolutely forward to look Cole directly in the eyes. “Besides, this is a bit of an attitude shift, isn’t it; weren’t you just telling us that we had to _save_ Paige?”

“That was before I knew all the facts,” Cole clarified, looking back at her. “You need the Power of Three to win here, and I’m not sure Paige is going to be in a rhyming mood-”

“So what’s the alternative; let her spend eternity as a vampire?” Phoebe countered. “We have Angelus on our backs already; I’m not having _another_ person in this family going evil on me, OK? She's still my sister, and that doesn't change because I happen to be sick _or_ because I'm your wife. Clear?”

With that, Phoebe turned and stormed out of Paige’s room, Piper following after her, leaving Cole standing alone in the room as Piper shut the door behind her.

“ _Great_ …” Phoebe groaned as she stormed down the stairs, Piper close behind her as they arrived on the lower level. “Just when I thought he was really _getting_ it, Cole has to go and do something like _this_ …”

“Lovers’ spat?” a voice suddenly said from outside the front door. “It’s always annoying when that happens, isn’t it?”

Spinning around to look in the direction of the voice, Piper and Phoebe were shocked to see Angelus leaning casually against the door frame, grinning nonchalantly at them as the door swung slightly on its hinges, the lock clearly broken.

“What the-?” Piper began in confusion.

“Oh, how did I do that?” Angelus said, indicating the broken lock. “The invitation thing only stops me actually going _into_ the house; I can still break the door open if I kick it hard enough, I just can’t come into the place.”

“Then why even _come_ here?” Piper asked, folding her arms as she glared at the thing that had usurped the body of her friend. “To gloat about the fact that Paige is going to become like you?”

Angelus’s eyes narrowed as he glared at the eldest Charmed One.

“Trust me, Piper,” he said grimly, “if you _ever_ imply that I’m like those… _posers_ … again, I will go to _great_ lengths to kill you the next time we meet.”

“You don’t like ‘em, huh?” Piper retorted, as she walked slightly closer to the door; from what Angel had told them, vampires couldn’t so much as stick an arm inside the door of a house without the owner’s invitation, but she’d rather not count on rules like that at a time like this. “Right; I’ll bear that in mind. In that case, why _are_ you here?”

“Why else?” Angelus asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at her. “I’m here to help.”


	24. Vampire VS Vampire

After Angelus’s last statement, Piper could only blink in shock before Phoebe finally broke the silence.

“I’m sorry, I think my hearing’s going,” she said, looking in confusion at Angelus. “ _You_ want to help _us_?”

“I _did_ just say that, yes,” Angelus confirmed, smiling slightly at her.

“O-kaaaay… did you get your soul back, or did you get a bang on the head?” Piper inquired, looking resolutely at the vampire before her. “Why would you want to help _us_? The last time we met you were letting the Judge loose on a shopping mall before we blew the guy up, remember?”

“True,” Angelus said, shrugging dismissively as he looked at her, “but you’re forgetting one oh-so-minor detail; unlike then, when I _wanted_ the Judge to tear humanity apart, this time around…”

He allowed himself a slight smirk as he folded his arms, still leaning against the doorway as he did so. “Well, your enemy is my enemy.”

“The Queen?” Phoebe asked, looking inquiringly at Angelus. “You’d really help us _kill_ her?”

“As I said,” Angelus replied, his eyes narrowing slightly as he glared at the seer, “I don’t like her kind of vampire; they’re all show and flash, lacking a pretty sizable amount of the raw power that any vampire of _my_ kind would possess if they’d lived as long as these guys did, and yet _they’re_ what people think of when they think ‘vampire’ even though there’s really only like, what, a few hundred of them in the world?”

He spat in disgust. “Quite frankly, it makes me _sick_ to think of them getting all the press just because they’re a bit ‘cooler’; we’ve been around just as long as _they_ have, you know!”

After a moment’s silence, Piper stepped forward to look critically at Angelus.

“So,” she said, her arms folded as she studied the vampire who used the body of a man she’d once regarded as a friend, “in a nutshell, you’re helping us against these guys because you don’t like the fact that they get all the press?”

Angelus growled slightly in his throat at the implication in Piper’s words, but nevertheless nodded in confirmation.

“Right,” Piper said, walking up closer to the door to more directly address the vampire. “Here’s the basic ground rules; you don’t try and get a new invitation into the house, you don’t try and get access to the Book of Shadows, you don’t even _joke_ about trying to kill us, and you let us go away free at the end of this little ‘experience’. In exchange, we won’t try and kill you, we’ll tell you anything we know about the situation, and we’ll let you go away alive- or as alive as you get, anyway- once the Queen’s out of the way. Deal?”

After a moment’s silence, Angelus nodded resolutely and held out a hand to Piper.

“Deal,” he said simply.

Nodding in acknowledgement of his response, Piper briefly shook the hand her former- and temporary- ally had offered her, before she stepped back to look at him once again.

“OK, now that you’re here, maybe you could confirm for us that our next move is the right one?” she asked, her arms folded as she looked at him. “We’re planning on checking for these guys in the cemeteries- they sound like they stick to the stereotypes a bit more than your lot do-, but do you have any other possibilities?”

Angelus shook his head.

“Nope, cemeteries seem fine to start,” he said, shrugging nonchalantly as he stepped back slightly, indicating Piper’s car with a sweep of his hand. “So, shall we go and check it out?”

“Fine,” Piper muttered as she and Phoebe exchanged glances, Phoebe dashing off to make sure they had all the vampire-hunting equipment together while Piper fixed her eyes on Angelus. “Just remember; you so much as lick your lips at us, and you’ll be fit for the dustpan. Got me?”

“Sure,” Angelus said, shrugging slightly as he stepped back. “I’ll see you outside, OK?”

* * *

  
A few hours later, Piper was beginning to wonder if bringing Angelus along with them had really been a good idea. Admittedly, his physical strength had been an asset when they’d encountered any demons, but as soon as he’d pinned any of the demons down, they’d just shimmered away. Even her trying to freeze any of their targets didn’t work; as soon as she tried to freeze them, they shimmered away, always just far enough away that she missed them on her first attempt to take them out and seemingly unwilling around to stick around for a second try.

“Geez, what _is_ it with these guys?” Piper groaned, as she looked over at Phoebe and Angelus. “That was, what, the _fourth_ demon tonight to run away from us?”

“Maybe word got out that we killed the Source?” Phoebe pointed out.“The _old_ Source,” Piper pointed out.

“Oh, you know about the new guy, huh?” Angelus asked, looking casually over at the witches.

Phoebe blinked.

“Sorry; _you_ know about the new Source?” she said, looking incredulously at the vampire. “Angel told us you practically _never_ keep in touch with events in the demon underworld?”

Angelus shrugged.

“Eh, what can I say?” he said dismissively. “You guys do something like taking on the Source and winning, I tend to pay attention; no point going up against you if I don’t pay attention to what you’re capable of.”

“Ah,” Piper said, before she sighed slightly, leaning against a nearby tombstone as she groaned. “Look, this isn’t getting us anywhere; we’ve been chasing demons and searching cemeteries all night, and not so much as one freakin' vampire of the kind we’re looking for. This is ridiculous; we’ve gotta figure out something else before the sun comes-”

“Whoaaa…” Phoebe suddenly groaned, leaning over on a nearby tombstone as she clutched at her stomach.

“Phoebe?” Piper asked, glancing anxiously over at her sister. “Are you OK?”

“Yeah… just a little dizzy,” Phoebe said dismissively, before she looked around herself and winced before turning back to Piper. “Uh… those tombstones aren't _actually_ moving, are they?”

“Nah, it’s just the kid,” Angelus shrugged.Piper and Phoebe’s eyes widened as they looked over at the vampire.

“ _What_?” Piper yelled, staring at her half-sister’s technically ex-boyfriend (Paige had dated _Angel_ , but Angelus did have Angel’s body, so he was still technically her ex) incredulously. “Are you saying Phoebe’s _pregnant_?”

“Didn’t you know?” Angelus asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Uh… _no_!” Phoebe yelled sarcastically as she glared at Angelus. “And how do _you_ know that anyway; what, did you have fun hunting pregnant chicks when you were back in your glory days?”

Angelus’s slight smirk, coupled with the knowledge that he never actually _lied_ to anybody- he simply told just enough of the truth to suit what he was trying to accomplish- was all they needed as an answer.

“Oh my God…” Piper whispered, as she glanced back at Phoebe. “You’re… you’re _pregnant_?”

“But…” Phoebe protested weakly. “I… I went to the drugstore! I got the test, peed on the stick, and, after anxiously awaiting the results for two minutes… I got _nothing_!”

“I hear those things can be wrong,” Angelus said dismissively. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Precisely,” a voice said from off to the side.

A voice that all three of the people present knew all too well.

“Ah, Paige,” Angelus said, smiling nonchalantly as he turned to look at the now-vampiric part-Whitelighter part-witch his ‘good’ side had dated before his release, now almost stinking from the stench of death and decay that had settled over her (Even for a vampire it wasn’t pleasant; one of the main reasons why none of the various breeds of vampire in existence had ever managed to get along was how unpleasant they’d always found each other’s ‘company’). “You made it to the party, huh? Can’t say I like the costume, though.”

“What’s wrong, Angelus?” Paige retorted, smiling slightly at him as she spread her arms slightly, her arms and stomach standing out vividly against the blood-red skirt and red straps- for lack of a better term; Angelus had never bothered much about learning the names of womens’ clothing since he was generally too busy removing them. “Don’t I even get a hug?”

“I have a thing about hugging Draculas,” Angelus countered, folding his arms and glaring at her. “You posers make me _sick_ , really; it’s a vamp thing.”

“Oh, can’t the big bad Scourge of Europe handle the fact that the _girl_ would be wearing the pants in this relationship?” the former Charmed One asked, smirking at Angelus. “You’re just jealous that I’d have more power as a vampire than you do…”

“OK, seriously, quit _hitting_ on your boyfriend’s evil side!” Phoebe yelled, holding out a cross in front of her as she glared at Paige.

“ _Why_ have you got to be like that?” Paige sighed, as she stared at her sister. With that, she casually kicked the cross out of Phoebe’s hand, following it up with a quick punch to her face, only for Angelus to grab the arm and hurl Paige off to the side.

“Yeah, you’ve got the _extra_ perks,” Angelus smirked, as Paige turned to look incredulously at him, “but didn’t your bosses ever tell you? _I’m_ the faster one of the two of us.”

With that said, he launched a punch of his own at Paige, forcing the new vampire to flip backwards to avoid hitting a nearby tombstone.

“Now, come _on_ , Paigey, you’re smarter than _this_!” Angelus groaned, smirking slightly as he looked in a mockingly pitying at her. “You don’t _really_ think you can stop me _now_ , do you?”

“Mmm… point,” Paige admitted, nodding slightly before a slight smile crossed her face. “But then again, I don’t think you can _catch_ me now either.”

With that said, she turned into a bat and flew away, leaving Piper, Phoebe and Angelus to look after her until Angelus sighed and glanced over at the sisters.“Looks like we’re going to the home ground,” he said, his tone clearly demonstrating his excitement at the prospect. “Gotta admit, I am _definitely_ going to enjoy this…”

“Uh, excuse me, we have a _pregnant woman_ here!” Piper protested, indicating Phoebe as she walked over to stand almost directly in front of Angelus, her hands raised just enough to freeze him if he tried anything. “You want us to go into a _vampire’s_ lair with a pregnant woman?”

“Look, do you think _I_ like going into a situation like this with somebody not at their peak?” Angelus asked, folding his arms as he stared back at Piper. “I’m not an idiot, Pipey; I just happen to need the Power of _Three_ if I’m going to have anything like a definite guarantee of taking Miss Queenie down there out for the count. What are you going to do, have Pheebs ring us up when we need to cast the spell and chant it over the phone? That’s not even _close_ to being an option, and we both know it; we need _everyone_ here if I’m going to take down that Queen.”

For a moment, the two of them simply stared at each other silently, before Piper groaned and turned back to look at Phoebe.

“Simple question, Pheebs,” she said as she looked at her sister, “can you hold it together long enough for us to stake or vanquish the Queen?”

For a moment, Phoebe stayed silent as she reflected on what she’d just learned, but after a few moments she nodded in confirmation.

“We have to save Paige,” she said, before she glared at Angelus. “Just make you know that this _doesn’t_ mean I agree with you.”

Angelus shrugged.

“Hey, the soul would _never_ have agreed to letting you along for this little ride; I say it all balances out in the end,” he said, grinning slightly at them with that sadistic smirk that was the most distinct difference between him and Angel.

“Right then,” Piper said, stepping back slightly as she glanced up at the sky. “LEO!”

A moment later, Leo appeared, his eyes widening in shock as he saw Angelus.

“Look,” Piper said, raising a hand to stop her husband before he could even start talking, “what Angelus is doing here is a long story and it’s really not relevant right now; what _is_ relevant is that he’s fighting _with_ us for the moment out of some vampire grudge against the Queen’s kind of vampire, and we need to get down to the vampire lair if we’re going to save Paige. Got me?”

For a moment, Leo looked like he was about to ask for more information, but then he sighed and nodded before he turned to Angelus.

“Just to make it clear,” he said as he looked at the vampire, “if you even _try_ to betray us, I’ll orb you to the other side of the planet and leave you to burn up in the sunlight.”

“You wouldn’t do that,” Angelus said simply. “You haven’t done it _so_ far; why should I believe you’d do it now?”

“Do you really want to push me far enough that I have to find out?” Leo countered. “Just because I’ve held back so far out of respect for what you once were doesn’t mean I couldn’t go that far if I felt that I had to.”

Angelus stood silent for a few seconds, casually studying the Whitelighter before him as though trying to determine whether his ensoulled counterpart’s friend was telling the truth or not. Leo might have been a pacifist by nature, but Angel knew better than most the lengths at which Leo had been willing to go to in order to protect his family and friends.

 _The question_ , Angelus mused to himself as he studied his friend, _is whether the ex-medic would go_ that _far_ …

“Gotcha,” he said at last, nodding at the Whitelighter. “Now then, shall we get going?”

With that, Leo placed a hand on Piper and Phoebe’s shoulders, Angelus placing a hand on Piper’s shoulder…

* * *

  
Then, after a fleeting moment of white lights and a faint musical sound surrounding them- Angelus really _hated_ that bit; Angel had been able to cope with it thanks to his soul, but orbing was _always_ an unpleasant prospect for any demon who tried it-, the group found themselves in a dark cavern.

“What the _hell_?” Piper said, looking over at Leo in disgust. “ _This_ is where the vampire Queen hangs out?”

“According to the Elders, yes,” Leo confirmed, nodding at his wife before he looked back at Angelus. “Still, it does seem to match their traditional hiding places, doesn’t it?”

“Dark, damp and overly ‘creepy’?” Angelus said dismissively, before he nodded in confirmation. “Yeah; it’s got all that in _spades_.”

“But where…” Phoebe began as she studied her surroundings with a torch, only to point it at the roof and barely manage to stop herself from screaming as she saw the mass of bats hanging above them.

“OK, location seems to have been confirmed,” Piper sighed, before she glanced over at Angelus. “Don’t suppose those vampy senses of yours can let us know which one’s Paige, can they?”

Before Angelus could reply, the torches on the wall around them lit up, revealing Paige standing at a doorway to the cave, standing alongside a man dressed in a black suit and a woman wearing a dark red skirt and crop top in a shimmering material, a thin black cloak draped over one arm and her equally dark hair running down her back.

“The Queen?” Piper asked Angelus out of the corner of her mouth.

“Oh yeah,” Angelus nodded, before he stepped forward to smirk at her. “So, Queenie, you decided to poke your head out of the gutter after all these years, huh?”

“Angelus?” the Queen said, looking at the Scourge of Europe with a slight smile of her own. “”Our new child told me that you were here, but I did not expect you to come so far for her.”

“What can I say?” Angelus shrugged. “You go for my prey, I tend to take that kind of thing personally; you _don’t_ turn someone I’m interested in and get off scot-free, you know.”

“Can we not simply settle this without a fight?” the Queen asked, walking forward herself to smile slightly at Angelus. “As I recall, our last encounter turned out well for both of us; can this not simply be settled just as… pleasantly?”

Phoebe blinked.

“Uh… is she implying what I _think_ she’s implying?” she said, looking at Angelus with a raised eyebrow. “You two were… _involved_?”

“Look, I was still learning, I didn’t know _quite_ what she was, and it was a one-time only thing!” Angelus groaned as he turned back to glare at Phoebe before turning his attention back to the Queen before him. “I’m going to put this simply; let Paige go, and I’ll make it quick.”

For a moment, the Queen simply stared at Angelus, and then she smirked.

“You do not have the power to kill me,” she said simply.

“Maybe not,” Angelus admitted, nodding slightly in acknowledgement of her point before a slightly malevolent smirk crossed his face, “but I’m sure going to try.”

With that said, he launched a punch at the vampire queen’s face, sending her staggering back as Piper, Phoebe and Leo drew their stakes and crosses and lunged at the queen’s male minion; unable to fight Paige without risking killing her, they simply used their crosses to hold her back for the moment until they could come up with a more effective long-term strategy for curing her to help them kill the Queen.

“Why do you do this?” the male minion asked Piper as he casually side-stepped an attempted staking; Piper made a mental note to get in some more hand-to-hand practice when (And it _would_ be when) Paige was back on their side once more). “We offer you and your sisters an eternity together; isn’t that preferable to death?”

“Are those our only two choices?” Piper retorted, clasping her cross as she glared at the vampire before her. “Because I'd prefer the scenario where you die and we get to stay human.”Rowan sighed in an exaggerated, frustrated manner.

“Very well,” he sighed, as he glanced up at the bat-covered ceiling above him. “Kill them.”

As soon as the bats began to dive towards them, Piper didn’t hesitate; as she and Leo raised their holy-water-filled squirtbottles and fired them at the approaching bats, Piper barely being able to stop herself from cursing as the bats kept flying. Either these guys didn’t have a weakness to holy water like they’d thought, or it just took a bit longer to work on them than it did on Angelus’s class of vampire.

Whichever it was, right now, Piper had only one priority; running as fast as she could away from the attacking bats. Even as she turned to flee, however, she felt herself being grabbed by the throat and thrown off to one side as the male vampire who had been with the Queen and Paige attacked her, moving faster than Piper had ever seen Angelus and his kind move.

“NO!” Piper vaguely heard Leo yell, only for his voice to be cut off as Paige charged at him, leaving Phoebe standing alone in the middle of the room as Angelus and the Queen continued to rapidly trade blows. So far, the two of them appeared relatively evenly matched, but Phoebe had witnessed Angelus in action enough times to know that he was having some trouble matching her pace. Angel may have been two hundred and fifty years old, but he’d made it clear to the sisters on more than one occasion that he was still far from operating at the peak of his potential after all the times he’d starved himself over his hundred or so years of guilt, and even with all the training he’d had it would take him a while to get back to full strength.

It hadn’t been a problem before, of course- Angel had always been close enough to full health for the kind of foes the Charmed Ones normally faced- but, no matter how often he might have said that the Queen’s class of vampire weren’t as strong as he was, it looked like the Queen’s superior age was compensating for that particular handicap.

As Phoebe stared at the sight around her- her sisters fighting with each other as Leo strained against the male vampire, Angelus desperately trading blows with the Queen-, she took a deep breath, going over her plan in her mind one last time before she tried anything.

She couldn’t believe she _wasn’t_ going to take advantage of an opportunity to take care of Angelus for good, after what he’d threatened to do to Paige, but the fact remained that, right now, whatever his motives for his actions, he was once again on their side, and they'd given him their word.

If she betrayed her word, she wouldn’t be any better than him.

Besides… no matter how little time Phoebe may have had to get to know her new sister, she knew enough to know that Paige would want to finish Angelus herself; she wasn’t going to take away Paige’s chance to redeem herself by taking out Angelus, even if Phoebe knew that she and Piper _didn’t_ blame Paige for unleashing the vampire in question.

No, Angelus would have to survive; all she had to do to ensure that happened was make sure she didn’t stake him by accident.

It was a bit anti-climatic, she knew, but with Piper and Leo occupied, Angelus looking pretty close to being outmatched, and no sign that Paige would snap back to normal, this was the only way to take downt he Queen that she could think of.

Praying that she would manage to time this right- as much as she wanted Angelus gone, she couldn’t make that decision for Paige-, and jumped into the air, activating her flying power as she charged towards the Queen and Angelus, her stake out in front of her.

“ _Angelus_!” she yelled as she approached. “ _Drop and roll_!”

She didn’t even need to waste time making sure that he understood what she’d meant by that command; he may not have been Angel spiritually any more, but she was willing to bet that there was still enough of Angel within him to remember what would happen if he didn’t do what she’d said.

Before the Queen could realise what was happening, Angelus had suddenly dived off to one side, leaving the Queen momentarily staring in shock and confusion as Phoebe hurtled towards her, a stake clutched in her outstretched right hand, mere seconds before the tip of the stake penetrated her chest with a force that even Angelus would have been hard-pressed to match.

The Queen barely had time to stare in shock at the sharpened piece of wood now sticking out of her when she collapsed into a pile of dust, the bats and Leo’s vampire adversary simultaneously bursting into flames and vanishing as she died. Only Paige remained, looking somewhat disorientated by whatever process was involved in removing the vampire DNA from her system, but otherwise seemingly back to normal as she slumped against Piper, no longer trying to kill her older sister.

“Well,” Phoebe said, smiling in a slightly uncertain manner at Angelus, “that seemed to work out as well as could be expected.”

“Nice call,” Angelus said, nodding briefly back at the witch before he glanced over at Leo and Piper, who were hauling a now-unconscious Paige over their shoulders. “So… care to get me out of here now?”

For a moment, Leo simply frowned at Angelus, evidently reluctant to help out a vampire with Angelus’s kind of reputation, but finally, after a moment’s pause, he nodded in resignation.

“Well,” the Whitelighter said as he looked at his former friend’s demon, “you helped us, so we’ll help you. Come on.”

Nodding briefly, Angelus walked over to stand beside Leo, Phoebe taking up position beside Piper as Leo closed his eyes, turned his gaze upwards…

* * *

  
Then, after another momentary discomfort- orbing _really_ wasn’t that pleasant when you didn’t have a soul to help ‘counter’ its effects-, Angelus found himself standing back outside the door of Halliwell mansion, prompting him to glance over at Leo with a slight smile.

“Didn’t feel like just orbing me into the place?” he asked nonchalantly, a slightly sarcastic smile on his face.

“I wasn’t sure what would happen if you were orbed into a building when you didn’t have an invitation to be there; I didn’t see any sense in risking it,” Leo said, as he shrugged Angelus’s hand off his shoulder and walked into the mansion, Piper following him with a still only semi-conscious Paige draped over her shoulder. As Phoebe stepped into the mansion, she turned back to look at Angelus, a slightly saddened expression on her face as she looked back at the man who she’d once almost regarded as a friend.

“Well… thanks for your help,” she said at last, as she looked at the vampire before she shook off her regretful expression and glared at him. “Just remember; the next time we meet-”

“All bets are off,” Angelus concluded, smirking at her. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

 _No… you wouldn’t, would you_? Phoebe thought to herself as Angelus turned around and walked off down the street, quickly vanishing from view among the shadows that surrounded the buildings. _Angel would never have encouraged a fight unless he knew that he’d have to… but you’d take any opportunity to fight that you get_.

 _Plus, of course_ , she reflected to herself as she turned back into the mansion, closing the door behind her as she did so, _Angel would_ never _have allowed me to go into battle if he’d been the one to discover that I was pregnant_.

Admittedly, she would still have insisted on going- she couldn’t continue being who she was if she’d left her sister to get turned into a vampire on a permanent basis- but the fact remained that Angelus hadn’t even hesitated to put a totally innocent life in jeopardy just to further his own plans.

As much as she may have sometimes been uncomfortable about Angel’s presence, Phoebe had always known that he would never endanger somebody who couldn’t handle the situation he’d put them in. Phoebe knew that Angel had respected her abilities as a hand-to-hand fighter- they’d had a few practice fights after his true identity had been revealed, Angel giving Phoebe a few tips on fighting demons with enhanced strength while Phoebe had managed tot each Angel a few more recent hand-to-hand techniques-, but she also knew that he would never have practically encouraged her to keep fighting if she had a child to consider.

Angel couldn’t have children himself due to his vampire nature; he would never put _anybody_ in a position where they might lose a child themselves.

Slightly saddened at this new reminder of how they had lost another friend in the fight against demons, Phoebe walked up the stairs towards her old bedroom; she may have another apartment with Cole now, but she wasn’t going anywhere until she’d seen for herself that Paige was going to be all right after what she’d just gone through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, next chapter, we’re jumping straight to the events of ‘Long Live the Queen’, as the events of ‘We’re Off To See The Wizard’ weren’t really affected by Angelus’s presence; he couldn’t really do anything to the wizard, the action took place too fast for him to really learn about it and come up with a decent plan- his connections in the magical underworld are rather limited- and he had no particular interest in helping either the Halliwells or Cole in destroying the grimore or transferring the Source’s powers to the wizard, so he generally stayed out of the situation to see how things went down and plan his next move accordingly (Specifically, what kind of impact it’ll have on his ‘alliance’ with Cole to have his only real bargaining chip- keeping Cole’s identity secret from the Charmed Ones- taken away from him)


	25. Long Live the Queen

As Phoebe stared in frustration at the sight outside her apartment window, trying desperately to tune out the sound of the thunderstorm outside, she found herself once again reflecting on the changes that had recently taken place in her life.

It was only natural that she should be thinking about them a lot, of course- after all, they _were_ her family, no matter what else had happened to them- but she had made her choice, and she was sticking with Cole.

She’d sworn for better or for worse, and she was sticking to that, come what may.

Just then, the door knocked, breaking off her train of thought.

“Come in,” she said, waving her hand slightly impatiently as the door opened and the Seer walked in, carrying a tray with a glass on it.

“My queen,” the Seer said politely- Phoebe had to make a conscious effort not to get frustrated at the chanting still taking place in the living room before the Seer closed the door-, “it’s time for your tonic.”

“Look, can you do anything about this thunder?” Phoebe asked, glancing at the demon behind her in an irritated manner. “It’s just making me _nuts_ right now…”

“I apologise, but I have no sway over the weather,” the Seer said apologetically. “I do have a friend who works with wind, but she's out of town.”

“OK, so wind’s out; what about the demons?” Phoebe groaned, as she reached over to pick up the glass the Seer had brought her. “Any sway over them? Because I swear, if they don't shut up-”

As she drank the potion, she screwed up her face in disgust at the foul taste; no matter how often she drank it, it _never_ seemed to improve with familiarity.

“God,” she groaned, putting the glass down again, “I _hate_ this stuff!”

“It’s for your own good-” the Seer began.

“Yeah, yeah, I get that,” Phoebe said, sighing in frustration as she leaned forward. “I just sometimes wonder what happened to good old regular vitamins; at least they don’t taste _this_ bad!”

“There’s nothing ‘regular’ about your pregnancy,” the Seer pointed out. “The new power you're experiencing is a mere shadow of what's to come; the tonic strengthens you to bear the weight of it.”

“OK,” Phoebe said, sighing in frustration, “then do me a favour; find me something that strengthens me and _doesn't_ taste like crap!”

As much as it was possible for a demon who could see the future to look surprised, the Seer did so.

“Are you… feeling all right?” she asked.

“Yeah…” Phoebe groaned, as she sat down on the bed once again, “it’s just… I have all this work that I have to do and…”

Groaning, she looked over at the door behind the Seer, raising her voice as she finished the sentence by yelling “I can't _concentrate_!”

“But… you are the queen now,” the Seer said, looking almost puzzled by Phoebe’s complaint. “There's no _reason_ for you to continue with this work at all.”

“Look, I get that you think I should be all ‘queen of the underworld’ right now, but I happen to _like_ my work,” Phoebe countered, sitting up to look at the Seer. “It’s a distraction-”

“From what?” the Seer asked, looking quizzically at Phoebe. “Are you still struggling with your decision?”

“No…” Phoebe said, shaking her head slightly uncertainly before she noticed the Seer’s sceptical gaze. “Look, I mean, I love Cole, and you know, don't get me wrong, this whole queen thing is kinda fun, it's just...”

“Your sisters,” the Seer said.

“Yeah…” Phoebe said, sighing slightly as she stared wistfully up at the ceiling. “I just… I don't understand why they have to be so _stubborn_. Why they can't just respect my decision?”

“Eh, you know how it is; the good guys tend to have a bit of trouble accepting it when one of their own goes over to the dark side,” a voice said from off to the side, accompanied by a sound that vaguely resembled a powerful fire that had suddenly ceased. “I mean, hey, look at it from their point of view; half their team went evil in the last month and one of them actually _died_ in the last year alone? I think they just don’t like to admit that they’re losing.”

Phoebe blinked in shock.“Angelus?” she said, turning to look in shock at the figure of her sister’s ex-boyfriend as he casually leaned against the wall of her room. “How-?”

“Funny thing about your husband being the Source of All Evil,” Angelus said by way of explanation as he walked nonchalantly into the main room of the apartment, leaving a small pile of ash on the ground behind him; judging by the sound she’d heard earlier, Phoebe was prepared to bet that he’d forced a demon to shimmer him into the apartment and then broken its neck. “ _You_ may still be mostly human- the demonic power’s coming on loan from the kid, after all-, but the other half’s demon enough to make the need for an invitation unnecessary; didn’t you know that? All I need is a way up that doesn’t require me to walk through the building- the other demons here don’t take too kindly to vamps hanging around- and it’s-”

“Look,” Phoebe began, staring in frustration at Angelus. “I don’t care how you got up here _or_ how demonic Cole is these days; _I’m_ human, so you still shouldn’t-”

“Be able to get in without an invitation from you?” Angelus interrupted, chuckling slightly. “Weren’t you paying attention? You’re _partly_ demonic thanks to the kid, and your husband’s totally demon since the Source took up residence; the percentage is just enough in my favour to get into this place without being directly invited.”

After a moment’s pause as she tried to come up with a potential counter to that statement- during which she vaguely heard an explosion from outside the room-, Phoebe groaned as she looked resignedly at Angelus.

“OK, so you’ve got free access to the apartment if you can shimmer up; even if you always manage to find a demon to get you inside here, what good does it do you?” she asked, folding her arms as she stared at him. “You made it clear back when you were Angel that your kind of vampire doesn’t normally pay much attention to the Underworld; I wouldn’t have thought this was the kind of place you’d visit much.”

“With the chaos that it had experienced lately?” the Seer put in, looking in a somewhat exasperated manner at Angelus as she spoke. “Trust me; this vampire takes great pleasure in distracting your husband from his great task-”

“Hold on a minute, let me make sure I’ve got the plot straight here; Angelus has come here _before_?” Phoebe interjected, looking critically at the Seer.

“Oh, yeah; your husband and I have been chatting ever since the old Source got blown up- nice job on that front, by the way; good to see that having the soul gone didn’t weaken your team up that much,” Angelus chuckled as he studied Phoebe, before he shook his head somewhat wistfully. “Of course, taking your sisters down isn’t going to be _that_ hard right now, what with them being down by one member of the Power of Three and all…”

“Enough,” the Seer said warningly, as she moved to stand between Angelus and Phoebe. “I advise you to watch your tongue, vampire; you forget that the terms of the original bargain that prevented the Source from taking your worthless life no longer apply any more.”

“Oh, you mean the fact that the whole ‘He kills me, the Halliwells know about his demonic status’ thing isn’t something I can hold over him any more?” Angelus asked, shaking his head slightly as he turned to walk over towards a nearby window; the sun had only recently set, but based on what Phoebe recalled of Angel’s description of his limitations, it was still dark enough for Angelus to depart without fear of incineration. “Please, my dear Seer, don’t you think I’d have planned for when that would happen? I didn’t live for over a century and a half by being an _idiot_ , you know-”

“Yeah, and the fact that you got cursed at the end of it?” Phoebe pointed out, raising her hand as she glared at Angelus, her fingers glowing slightly as she prepared to hurl a fireball at him. “What would you call _that_ ; ‘bad luck’?”

“I prefer to think of it as something I wasn’t expecting; it’s not like they’d ever tried it out _before_ , after all,” Angelus countered, apparently unconcerned about the glow around his former ally’s fingers as he opened the window before him. “Anyway, I’ll be off; just wanted to wish you luck on the new team.

“After all,” he said, a small smile on his face as he opened the window before him, “what do your sisters matter when compared to your hubby?”

With that, Angelus vaulted out of the window, vanishing from view before either the Seer or Phoebe could do anything.

After a moment’s silence, Phoebe glanced over at the Seer.

“That wouldn’t kill him, right?” she asked.

“Given Angelus’s age, he could easily control his landing to minimise the damage to himself,” the Seer admitted, nodding briefly at her. “I could send one of our warlocks to try and deal with him-”

“No… it’s not important,” Phoebe said, waving a frustrated hand as she stood up and walked towards the door. “If you’ll excuse me now, I have some things I’d like to talk with my husband about; if you could just look into something to stop Angelus doing something like that again, I’d really appreciate it.”

Even as she stormed into the living room, however, Angelus’s parting words continued to reverberate in her mind.

_What do your sisters matter when compared to your hubby?_

As much as she loved Cole, she _had_ grown up with Piper, she’d spent most of the last four years coming to regard Leo as being pretty much the closest thing to a brother she’d ever had, and even with the tensions between them over Paige’s lack of trust when it came to Cole, she really felt that she’d bonded with her new half-sister over the last year…

Hell, though she’d never admit to it, a part of her even missed Angel; she may not have liked the fact that Paige accepted him and couldn’t accept Cole, but at least she’d known she could count on him to stand by them when the situation got ugly.

Did she really value Cole- a man she’d known for only a couple of years, no matter how much she loved him- over the family who’d been there for her for far longer than he’d been?

Even as she waved her hand to incinerate one of the demons that were currently keeping Cole occupied, she couldn’t shake the nagging doubts the vampire’s words had left…

* * *

  
As he walked back into the abandoned-yet-comfortable apartment complex that he and his fellows had acquired for their use shortly after the whole ‘Judge’ thing had fallen apart, Angelus was only slightly disappointed to see Spike sitting before him in his wheelchair, glaring at the door as his grandsire walked in.

“Ah, the welcoming committee!” Angelus said, smiling nonchalantly at the still-wheelchair-bound vampire before him. “How’s things been on the home front while I was gone?”

“Dru’s takin’ a nap,” Spike said dismissively. “Thought I’d take the opportunity to have a little… chat… with you.”

“What about?” Angelus asked casually.

“Oh, maybe the fact that you seem to be encouraging the _queen of evil_ to defect _back_ to the other side?” Spike countered, rolling forward slightly to glare at Angelus as much as he could from his position. “Are you sodding _nuts_ , mate? With her gone the other two are practically _easy pickings_ -”

“And then who’s going to be left to deal with the Source?” Angelus countered, staring grimly at Spike. “You need to think a bit more long-term, Spike; at least with the Charmed Ones, we’ve got a _slightly_ better chance at taking them down by attacking them on their own. Besides, thanks to Cole Turner’s friendship with the ‘good’ me, we’ve got a Source for the first time in several hundred years that actually acknowledges our existence. Let him stay in charge, and he’ll either want us dead or he’ll want our obedience; he won’t settle for much less than that. Don’t know about you, but I’m not really interested in _either_ option, know what I mean?”

Despite himself, Spike couldn’t help but admit that Angelus had a point; with the new Source having a better idea what he and his kind were capable of, it definitely wasn’t that likely that they’d be allowed to continue operating like they had. They’d been ignored in the past because they weren’t that tough magically, but with this guy having had an example of what they could do against magic-based demons thanks to the Poof’s actions when he had his soul stuffed into him, the bugger might actually start taking an interest in them.

As much as Spike generally liked to disagree with Angelus on principle alone, he really didn’t like the idea of having to answer to somebody. If Captain Forehead had a plan that would stop this bugger from trying to take charge of their kind…

Well, as much as Spike hated to admit it, the bugger’s plans tended to work out in the end; if he thought he had a way of dealing with the Source, Spike would believe it.

“OK, so you weaken the Source by getting rid of his wife; then what?” the youngest member of the Scrouge asked, raising a critical eyebrow as he stared at his grand-sire. “Stab ‘im in the middle of the divorce proceedings while the bugger's occupied?”

“Spike, Spike, Spike… you never see the big picture, do you?” Angelus sighed, tutting slightly as he studied his former protégé. “We don’t _need_ to kill the Source ourselves.”

“We don’t?” Spike repeated, looking in confusion back at Angelus. He was definitely starting to wonder if his grand-sire had lost it somewhere along the line; what was with all this crap about weakening the Source if they weren’t going to try and attack the bugger at the end of it?

“Nope,” Angelus replied, shaking his head with a slight smirk on his face. “Make our dear would-be queen of the Underworld think a bit about her position, and she’ll do it for us.”

* * *

  
A couple of nights later, Phoebe sat silently in her room, her mind occupied by her actions of the past few days as she fumed over everyone’s reaction to her recent decisions.

 _God_ … she tries to find some kind of compromise that keeps _both_ sides in this whole mess happy, and what does she get? Her sisters couldn’t get why she had to leave the demons alive if she was going to preserve her marriage despite the fact that she still saved the innocent, her husband couldn’t get why she had to help her sisters keep the innocents safe even if she didn’t vanquish his followers…

For some reason, Angelus’s words from his earlier ‘visit’ to her once again chose that moment to rise to the front of her mind.

 _Taking your sisters down isn’t going to be that hard right now, what with them being down by one member of the Power of Three and all_ …

 _He’s wrong_ … Phoebe thought to herself, once again trying to reassure herself that her actions were correct. _They’re_ not _down by one… I can help even_ more _people this way… I’ve got an inside look at the demon world that I never had before… I can stop their most damaging plans while still leaving them some victories… I can…_

“Rationalising walking the fine line?” Angelus’s voice inquired, breaking into her train of thought and prompting her to look at the window, where the vampire currently crouched just outside the glass, smiling nonchalantly at her.

“God, could you _be_ any more of a stalker?” she groaned, as she stood up and walked over to the window to glare at Angelus. “What are you doing here, anyway; I thought it was _Paige_ you wanted to turn?”

“Eh,” Angelus said, shrugging as well as he could while still maintaining his grip on the window-pane before him. “I’ve got an opportunity to have a few conversations with the new queen of the demon underworld; this kinda thing doesn’t happen to a vampire very often, you know?”

“What, so now you’re a pathetic stalker with a celebrity obsession?” Phoebe retorted, glaring at Angelus for a moment before she threw up her hands in frustration and turned away. “Why am I even bothering talking to you; I’ve got enough on my plate as it is-”

“Yeah, on that topic, I’ve been meaning to ask, do you _really_ think you can succeed where rat-boy failed?” Angelus asked, once again sounding frustratingly smug even as Phoebe stopped.

As far as she knew, there was only one person in the world that Angelus would call ‘rat-boy’, and he had technically vanished from San Francisco a few months ago during the confrontation with the Judge.

“What do you mean, can I succeed where Angel failed?” she asked, curious despite herself as she turned back to study the vampire. She knew that, no matter what he’d been in the past, Angelus was nothing more than a ruthless killer, but on the other hand, he never actually _lied_ to anybody; he twisted the truth to suit his own goals, but he never told anybody something that wasn’t fundamentally true.

So long as she didn’t allow herself to forget that fact, Phoebe had a feeling that she might actually be able to find out something interesting from the bastard before he decided to leave.

“Oh, didn’t Paige tell you?” Angelus continued, smiling slightly at her as he spoke. “Back when the soul first got stuck here, Angel tried to act like he was still me by killing a bunch of criminals and murderers and hoped that’d be enough to keep Darla happy. Kinda like what you’re doing now, really; doing bad stuff but trying to keep the end goal being something that benefits the ‘good guys’ in the end-”

“Your point?” Phoebe asked, folding her arms as she glared at the vampire outside her window.

“My point,” Angelus said, the slight smirk fading from his appearance as he stared at her, “is that, in the end, Angel ran away from Darla because he realised that he _couldn’t_ walk that kind of line; she tried to make him eat a baby and he bailed out. Hated the guy for doing it, of course- may not have liked him being so picky, but human blood is human blood, after all-, but hey; you’ve got to admire a guy who realises he’s got to be himself, don’t you?”

Phoebe said nothing, but inwardly she was reflecting on Angelus’s words as he leapt down from the window and vanished into the night.

She had to admit, the vampire did have a point…

The only question was, which version of herself should she be true to?

What she’d been _born_ into- a Charmed One- or what she’d _chosen_ \- the Queen of the Underworld?

 _God_ … she groaned, as she leaned forward to clasp her head in both hands, _just_ once _, can’t things be_ simple _for me? All I wanted was to have a good life with my husband_ and _my sisters; is that too much to ask?_

Sighing in frustration, Phoebe stood up and headed for the door, shrugging on her coat as she walked down the stairs.

Maybe if she spent a bit of time working on her column, she’d feel a bit more prepared to come to a decision about this whole mess…

* * *

  
As Paige sat in the attic, staring dejectedly at the Book of Shadows, she once again found herself wishing that Angel had never lost his soul; right now, more than ever, she could _really_ have used her vampire boyfriend’s words of wisdom and comfort. He may not have had any inherent magical abilities himself, but his knowledge of spells and demons couldn’t have failed to be helpful in their current situation.Then again, maybe his help would have been relatively limited in the end; after all, Piper had been in this game a lot longer than she had, and she definitely _wasn’t_ coping well with the current situation.

 _Great_ … she groaned to herself, continually studying the Book of Shadows for some ideas while occasionally glancing at her watch; after her drinking phase in the past, she liked to think she knew a thing or two about hangover cures, and the one she was preparing for Piper should be ready in a little while. _Once- just_ once _\- can we have an ultimate bad guy who goes down_ easily _? Is that so much to ask?_

She shook her head in frustration at herself. _What am I saying; of_ course _it’s too much to ask…_

Closing the Book and giving up her self-assigned task as a bad job, Paige headed down the stairs, walking into the kitchen just as Piper was sitting up, clutching her head in her hand as she did so.

“God…” the eldest surviving Halliwell groaned, looking in confusion at the blender in the middle of the kitchen table. “What is _that_?”

“Hangover cure,” Paige said casually. “There was a time I really needed that stuff; I figured it would be best to get it ready now rather than later.”

“Ugh…” Piper groaned, as she clutched at her head before looking back at Paige. “Look, I’m sorry I’ve been kinda… well, useless, lately. It’s just… it’s one thing when your sister has a husband that you can't stand; it's another when he is the Source of all evil.”

“Yeah, I gotcha on that,” Paige said, as she poured the contents of the blender into a cup and passed it over to Piper. “Drink up; we’ve got some stuff to do.”Taking the glass, Piper swallowed the contents, made a face at the taste, and then put the glass down once again.

“We… we can’t lose her, Paige,” she said, sitting up grimly as she looked at her half-sister. “I _can’t_ lose another sister.”

“Look,” Paige said, turning resolutely to look at Piper, “I think we’ve got a chance; look at how Phoebe was actually _concerned_ about Greg earlier.”

“She’s still gone over the edge,” Piper countered.

“Look, do you _have_ to look on the negative side all the time?” Paige groaned. “If Angel taught me anything, it’s that it’s practically _impossible_ to walk that kind of grey area; he tried doing it for a little while after he first got his soul back and he just couldn’t do it. All we really need to do to really get through to Phoebe is put her in a position where she _has_ to choose one way or the other; we storm the penthouse, bring the crystals, and, given that we still know the spell, we vanquish the Source the same way we did the last time.”

Piper blinked.

“Uh… Paige, aren’t you forgetting that the Source is _Cole_ now?” she pointed out, looking in a slightly frustrated manner at her sister. “You really think she’s going to just work with us to vanquish him?”

“If it came down to saving you or letting Angelus live, I know which one I’d pick,” Paige stated resolutely as she looked at her sister. “Trust me; it’s the only guaranteed way to get through to the good that’s still inside Phoebe.”

After a moment’s thoughtful silence, Piper smiled at Paige.

“You know, you still amaze me, Paige,” she said, as she stood up to take a better look at her sister. “I mean, less than a year ago you were an only child.”

“And I’m not that interested in being one again,” Paige responded. “Come on; let’s do this. I’ll get the crystals.”

She had no sooner stepped out into the hallway when the front door opened and Phoebe walked into the house, looking at her with a slightly awkward expression.

“Phoebe?” Paige said, looking in surprise at her sister; as much as she’d hoped Phoebe was breaking Cole’s ‘conditioning’- or whatever the hell he was doing to her-, she hadn’t expected her sister to show up before they’d even left the manor.

“Cole is going to kill Greg Conroy,” Phoebe said by way of explanation. “I can't let that happen.”

Only her refusal to jeopardise Phoebe’s decision by making her think she had been influenced by her sisters- how was to say how far Cole’s brainwashing thing extended into her mind?- stopped Paige from punching the air and proclaiming a victory for their side.

The Charmed Ones were _back_ , and this time, Cole wouldn’t have a prayer.

* * *

  
A few hours later, inside the abandoned building that served as the new home of the Scrouge of Europe, Drusilla started to smile as she stared up at the ceiling, prompting a curious glance from Angelus and Spike as the two of them sipped at their blood (Given Spike’s currently wheelchair-confined status, Angelus had moved the fridge that Angel had kept in his old flat into their current residence, although he stocked it with human blood rather than animal).

“Something up, Dru?” Spike asked, rolling over curiously to look at his sometimes-insane girlfriend.

“Something’s down, my dear knights,” Drusilla corrected, smiling over at Spike and Angelus as she spoke. “The self-titled origin of our kind has fallen, and soon his offspring will be drawn out of my human-sister into my demon-sister and destroy itself…”

“Hold on a minute; Phoebe’s going to lose her kid?” Angelus asked, looking at Dru with a slight smile on his face. He still wasn’t entirely clear on why Dru called Phoebe her ‘sister’ all the time- was it just the fact that they both had visions or did Dru know something about their connection that even he didn’t know?-, but right now he was more focused on the fact that she’d be losing the baby.

He wasn’t a coward, of course, but the prospect of facing a witch who could do what Phoebe could do while drawing on that baby’s power wasn’t exactly something he’d enjoy; he’d only survived his earlier meetings with her by playing on her curiosity about whatever he had to say to her at the time. Take away her interest in just talking to him, and he wasn’t as certain about his chances for victory as he would have been otherwise; her losing the kid might make her less challenging, but this was possibly one occasion where he wouldn’t mind having less opportunities to have fun in a fight.

“Oh yes…” Dru continued, staring up at the ceiling with an ever-widening smile on her face. “And then comes the surprise… a big surprise in a stone… the kind that can set a world ablaze and send millions of humans screaming into hell…”

Angelus raised an eyebrow at that last comment.

He had to admit, _that_ definitely sounded interesting…

He’d like to see Paige and her sisters tackle something like _that_ and still have time to deal with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly, sorry I didn’t include the final battle between the ColeSource and the Charmed Ones, but really, apart from Paige kicking Cole about a bit more than she did in the show- the hand-to-hand training she got from Angel is _definitely_ effective at its job- it all worked out the same way as it did in originally. However, as a consolation for the lack of combat here, next chapter, we jump over the events of ‘Womb Raider’- thanks to Dru, Angelus knew what was going to happen while the Seer’s visions tended to neglect the little detail of her death, so he didn’t really do anything during that particular fight- and go straight to “Witch Way Now”, where the Charmed Ones not only have to face the Angel of Destiny, but _also_ have to deal with the oh-so-minor issues of Alcathla, as well as the appearance of a very particular _BtVS_ character…
> 
> (And no, it’s _NOT_ Willow- in this reality Buffy never manifested as the Slayer, so Willow never had an opportunity to learn about her witchy potential- but more than that, I’m not going to say right now)


	26. Let the Endgame Begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are, moving up to the big finale of the first fic of this series; the Source has fallen, the Seer and her Council have bitten the dust, but Angelus is still active and out to cause as much trouble as possible. And now, _BtVS_ ’s _Becoming_ meet’s _Charmed_ ’s _Witch Way Now_ ; the Angel of Destiny appears to the Charmed Ones when they’re not only trying to deal with a witch-hunting whackjob, but _also_ trying to prevent Angelus from unleashing Alcathla on the world…  
> Usual rules apply; anything you don’t see here- such as the sisters’ initial reactions to the Angel of Destiny’s offer- happened the same way they did in the show, with my main focus being on what’s different in this reality

Even as Paige thrust her stake into the chest of her vampiric opponent, she was already orbing over to stand a few feet away from her current position, her gaze fixed on her next opponent as he turned to look incredulously in her direction.

“Surprised?” she said, smirking slightly as the vampire looked at her like he was trying to predict her next move without even knowing how she’d pulled off her last one; evidently these suckers weren’t used to encountering a ‘normal’ woman who could hold her own against them. “Trust me; you still haven’t seen what I can _really_ do when I want to.”

Roaring in rage- whether he didn’t believe her ‘warning’ about what she could do in a fight or simply didn’t care, she couldn’t tell and wasn’t bothered either way-, the vampire charged towards her, only for Paige to launch a powerful kick to his chest, following it up with a palm strike powerful enough to do some damage even to his vampire-reinforced nose.

Even as she fought to stop herself from wincing at the brief pain in her wrist- she may have learned how to limit the damage she did to herself when delivering particularly powerful blows, but it still wasn’t easy to hit something as tough as a vampire without feeling _some_ of the impact herself-, Paige was spinning around to land another blow on his jaw with her right foot, sending him staggering back and moaning through a clearly broken jaw.

“Now then,” Paige said grimly as she stared at the vampire before her, “I’ll give you one chance- _one_ chance- to walk away from me, OK? Tell Angelus that I’m ready for him. Clear?”

The vampire nodded weakly.

“Good,” Paige said simply, before she pointed at the path a few feet away from them. “Now, get out of my sight.”

As the vampire turned to hurry away, Paige waited until he was out of sight, and then slumped down against a nearby tree, her head in her hand as she stared at the ground before her.

“Oh, _God_ …” she groaned, keeping her stake clutched in her left hand as she stared in frustration at nothing in particular. “Can’t this just _end_ …?”

She knew she was rapidly approaching the point of becoming obsessive, of course- after all, with the Source gone, the Charmed Ones now lived in a practically demon-free city; nobody was _really_ ready at the moment to tackle the witches who’d killed the big cheese and the entire demon council-, but she just couldn’t help it.

Call her obsessive, but as long as Angelus continued to walk through the streets of the city, killing innocent people and using her boyfriend’s face to do it, she couldn’t stop trying to counter the damage he was doing.

She knew it wasn’t her fault that Angel had lost his soul, of course- as Piper had pointed out, she was hardly to blame for acting on her desire to be with the man she loved, and she could hardly have known that he was going to go evil on her after the fact- but that didn’t stop her _feeling_ responsible.

Whether unintentionally or otherwise, she’d caused this whole situation. They’d been distracted from Angelus’s activities because of the more immediate threat of the Source- each foe had been personal, but Angelus could only operate on a local scale while the Source had an entire demon army available to him-, but every time Paige had looked in the paper lately, she’d seen yet another killing reported that could only have been Angelus’s work; Leo had confirmed that the habit of making crosses on the cheeks of some of his earlier victims was an old ‘trademark’ of Angelus’s kills.

He’d already killed something like a dozen people, apparently for no other reason than because he couldn’t get to them directly; he didn’t even seem to be selecting them based on a specific pattern, so they couldn’t even try to predict who he’d go after next and thus try to protect them.

Paige knew she had to do it.

She had to find Angelus.

She had to do what Angel would have wanted and kill his demon.

If only it wasn’t so _hard_ not to think about what she’d lost when Angel’s soul had been taken from him, and what she’d lose all chance of regaining when she finally saw him turn to dust…

* * *

  
A few metres away from where Paige currently sat on the ground, hidden behind a tree as he watched her, Angelus allowed himself a satisfied smirk as she sat on the ground.

She was definitely approaching the point where she’d be fully ready for him to turn her; this little ‘game’ of theirs no longer favoured him over her, as far as he could see. She’d been a fair opponent when the two of them had fought shortly after the destruction of the Judge, of course- even if part of the reason she’d won was that he wanted to see if she was willing to kill _him_ yet-, but after taking out the Source itself on no less than two separate occasions?

He’d be prepared to bet that, the next time they met, he’d have a definite challenge in front of him if he was going to put her down for the count.

Let whatever Dru had seen in her vision a few weeks ago show up to provide them with the appropriate stakes for such an epic confrontation as theirs almost deserved to be, and the upcoming fight between them would be _very_ interesting…

“Soon enough, lover,” he whispered, smirking in a satisfied manner as he studied her sitting on the ground, her dark hair covering her neck as she stared at the stake clutched in her hand. “All that remains is the appropriate stakes, and the game is on.”

With that, he turned around and walked away, leaving Paige to continue staring reflectively at the stake in her hand before she herself got up to walk away.

* * *

  
As he walked back into the building that had served as his home ever since his restoration to his old self, Angelus allowed himself a slight grin as he saw Spike slumped sulkily in his wheelchair, reading with the newspaper with an evidently frustrated expression on his face as Drusilla walked in from her own hunt, licking her lips and holding her stomach as though she’d disagreed with something she’d eaten.

“Nice walk, pet?” Spike asked briefly.

“I met an old man,” Angelus’s favoured childe said, sounding slightly sulky at the thought. “Didn't like him. He got stuck in my teeth.”

As she licked her fingers briefly, she turned to look at Spike, closing her eyes and leaning her head back as she continued speaking. “But then the Moon started whispering to me... all sorts of dreadful things…”

“Like what?” Angelus asked, deciding that now was as good a time as any to announce his presence to his vampiric family.

“Oh, look who’s home; back from stalking the ex already?” Spike asked teasingly.

Angelus didn’t even bother to answer the crippled vampire; he just shoved past the wheelchair-confined vampire to look inquiringly at Drusilla.

“Did you have a vision?” he asked, looking inquiringly at the woman before him, not for the first time slightly regretting her insanity; it made for an exquisite torment, but at the same time it made her practically impossible to understand at times like this. “Is something coming?”

“No… it’s _here_ ,” Drusilla said, grinning as she looked over at the vampire. “At the museum. A tomb... with a surprise inside.”

“You can see all that in your head?” Angelus asked, looking at her with a faint trace of approval. She may be more enigmatic than the Greek Oracle had been, but at times like this he was always grateful he’d turned her rather than killed her.

“No, you great poof; she read it in the sodding _paper_!” Spike groaned, as he held out the paper to his grandsire. Taking the offered item, Angelus studied the headline- ‘Mysterious Obelisk Unearthed’- and the subtitle underneath it- ‘Excavators Discover Ancient Artifact’- before looking inquiringly up at Drusilla.

“This is what you meant?” he asked her, raising an eyebrow slightly as he spoke. “Would it be what I think it is?”

“It’s a surprise,” Drusilla replied, leaning back with a broad grin on her face as she spoke. “The kind of surprise that can set a world ablaze and send millions of humans screaming into hell.”

Angelus raised his other eyebrow appreciatively.

A surprise that could send the world to Hell?

Now that _would_ make an appropriate fight during which to turn Paige…

* * *

  
“ _God_ …” Paige groaned the next morning as she slumped down in her chair at the breakfast table, her head in her hands as she stared listlessly ahead of herself, dark circles under her eyes from having been up so late.

“Another rough night, huh?” Piper asked as she walked into the room, looking curiously over at her younger sister.

“You have _no_ idea…” Paige assured her, standing up and heading over to the kettle to prepare herself a cup of coffee. “I mean, I stake _three_ vampires, and _none_ of them seemed to know a _thing_ about where Angelus is hiding out at the moment.”

“Ah,” Piper said, nodding slightly as she looked uncertainly at her younger sister. “Uh… no offence, but are you _sure_ that you should be going after Angelus on your own? I mean, you’ve only been in the witch business for about a year-”

“He’s my problem; _I’ll_ be the one to deal with him,” Paige coldly informed her sister, taking a sip of her newly-prepared coffee before she groaned and glanced over at the window; her mind had been so clouded by exhaustion earlier that she hadn’t registered the sound of the workmen outside. “God, haven’t those guys gone _yet_?”

“Unfortunately not,” Piper replied, shaking her head as she looked at her sister. “I asked them how long it was going to take, and they _said_ three weeks, which means it’ll probably be around three _months_.”

“Ah,” Paige said, shaking her head slightly as she took another sip of her coffee and stared in frustration out of the window. “Well, I guess all we can do is hope that the demons stay quiet; vampires we can at least tackle outside, but if we start getting thrown through the window or something we’re going to have a _lot_ of awkward questions to answer…”

“You won’t,” Leo said as he walked into the kitchen, his expression grim as he looked at the sisters. “Even without the issue of recent events having caused so much chaos down there they’re too busy fighting each other to worry about us, our main problem definitely won’t follow us to the house.”

Piper blinked slightly at the grim expression on her husband’s face.“Uh… what do you mean, our _main_ problem?” she asked, looking anxiously at her husband.

Before Leo could answer, the main door opened and Phoebe walked into the kitchen, looking impatiently at her sisters.

“We have a huge problem,” she said simply. “Cole tried to contact me at work today.”

“What, more whisperings?” Paige asked.

“No, _this_ time he was channelling through a TV psychic while I was at work,” Phoebe countered, as she sat down in her chair in frustration. “I mean, seriously, he sounds like he’s getting really _desperate_ now…”

“Did anybody notice?” Paige asked, unable to stop a briefly irrational spike of jealousy as she heard about Cole’s latest attempt to communicate with them from the grave.

She knew it didn’t make sense, but part of her couldn’t help but wonder why Angel had never tried to make contact with her after his soul had been removed from his body. Was it because he wasn’t a magic-based demon like Cole was, was it because his body was still walking around even if he wasn’t in it…

There were several potential reasons for why he hadn’t been able to make contact, of course, but that didn’t stop Paige from wishing she knew conclusively _why_ he couldn’t say anything to her.

“Just my highly suspicious assistant,” Phoebe said, bringing Paige’s attention back to the matter at hand. “I mean, how am I supposed to move on with my _life_ when I keep being haunted by his _after_ life?”

“Any ideas how he’s doing that, Leo?” Paige asked, seizing the opportunity presented to her to find out if there was any way Angel’s soul could do the same.

“I don’t know,” Leo said apologetically, dashing Paige’s hopes of getting an answer to her unspoken question. “I guess it could be because he’s half-demon; maybe he’s on some kind of astral plane…”

“Well, whatever; we can't risk him contacting me again,” Phoebe said, shaking her head resolutely. “I have to figure out a way to get to him and find out what he wants.”

“Uh, can we focus on the immediate priority here?” Piper put in, looking inquiringly over at her husband. “Leo, before Phoebe showed you said something about us having a _main_ problem coming up?”

Before Leo could reply, he suddenly froze.

Paige blinked.

“Uh, Piper?” she asked, looking in confusion over at her sister. “Why’d you freeze Leo?”

“Yeah, I gotta admit, it does seem a bit… excessive,” Phoebe added, as she indicated the view outside. “I mean, I found those guys annoying too, but did you have to freeze Leo to make _them_ be quiet-?”

“The guys outside?” Piper repeated, turning to look out of the window in confusion. “What do you mean…?”

Her voice trailed off as she took in the sight before her; every single one of the workmen who’d been making such a noise earlier were now frozen into stillness.

“What the _hell_?” Piper said, staring incredulously at the sight before her. “I didn’t do that; I _couldn’t_ freeze all that stuff!”

“But I can,” a voice said from behind them.

Instantly spinning around, the three sisters found themselves facing an old man in a long blue robe, smiling slightly at them as he stood in the middle of the room, his arms spread out.

Paige blinked.

“Who the hell are _you_?” she asked, looking incredulously at the man before them.

“I'm the Angel of Destiny,” the man said, in a tone of voice that made it clear that he thought that explained everything. “And I've come to change yours.”

* * *

  
A few minutes later, Paige couldn’t believe what had just happened.

Not only were they being given the chance to stop living a life like nothing she’d ever dreamed of… a life that had brought her a family and a lover she could never have imagined having while she was growing up (OK, so her lover had gone evil; Angel had still been a great boyfriend during his ‘good’ period)… and her sisters wanted to _give it up_?

Before she could think any further about that, Piper’s phone started to ring and Leo moved once again.

“Uh… Piper?” he asked, looking in confusion at her. “Did you just freeze me?”

“No, the Angel of Destiny did,” Piper replied, as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “You’d better check with the Elders-”

“ _After_ telling us what you were going to say earlier,” Paige interjected, as Piper raised the phone to her ear.

“Yeah, sure; we’ll talk about that once I’m done here,” Piper said briefly, before she hit the ‘Accept Call’ button and raised the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

After a moment’s silence, her eyes widened in confusion. “Darryl? What’s wrong?”

After a moment’s silence, Piper waved Paige and Phoebe over to listen to the rest of the conversation.

“ _An FBI agent named Jackman called me into his office today_ ,” Darryl was saying over the line; Paige definitely didn’t like the sound of an FBI agent looking over their stuff. “ _He did a search on unsolved cases. Apparently your names came up on way too many witness lists_.”

“What do you mean?” Phoebe asked, looking anxiously at the phone in absence of Darryl himself to look at. “What does he know?”

“ _I don't know, but I'm gonna try find out_ ,” Darryl assured them. “ _In the meantime, just lay low, and whatever you do,_ don't _use any magic_.”

As Piper terminated the call, Paige groaned.

“ _Great_ …” she sighed, as she looked at her sisters. “So, basically, we’re screwed, right?”

“No,” Piper said, shaking her head. “That would take destiny out of our hands, and I _don't_ think that's what the Angel meant-”

“OK,” Phoebe said, raising a hand in a warning gesture, “ix-nay on the angel-nay talk, OK? Let’s take this up to the… family heirloom, shall we?”

Gesturing towards the stairs, Phoebe swiftly headed up towards the attic, followed closely by Piper, Paige and Leo, the group remaining silent until they’d finally reached the attic and the Book of Shadows.

“Uh… am I the only one who doesn’t get why coming up here helps anything?” Piper asked.

“Actually, it’s pretty simple,” Phoebe replied as she picked up a portable CD player that had been sitting around in the attic for a while now- Paige wasn’t sure when it had first appeared, but her best guess was sometime after the fight with the original Source; he’d almost certainly have destroyed it if he’d been here at the time-, turned it on at full volume, and put it beside the window. “Since nobody’s left the house empty since this morning, there’s no way he’d have had time to bug the house, so he has to be listening from outside. Make a loud noise like that, and it’s really kind of hard for them to hear what we’re talking about.”

“Ah,” Paige said, nodding in understanding. “Smart move; let us hear what Leo has to say to us, mmm?”

Phoebe’s expression almost instantly turned sheepish, as though she’d totally forgotten that her brother-in-law had something to tell them.

“Ah,” she said, somewhat apologetically. “Y’see, I was _kinda_ thinking more about trying to deal with the Cole issue we’ve got going on right now…”

“Trust me, you all need to know this,” Leo said, looking resolutely at the sisters. “This morning, the obelisk containing the demon Alcathla was stolen from the museum, and the Elders.”

Paige blinked in confusion.

“Sorry; Angelus stole the obelisk containing _who_?” she asked.

“An ancient demon,” Leo replied, his expression grim as he looked at his family. “Around eight centuries ago, he came forth to swallow the world, his intention being to send it to Hell. Fortunately, he was killed by a virtuous knight who pierced the demon's heart before he could draw a breath to perform the act, causing Acathla turned to stone-”

“Sorry; he turned to _stone_?” Phoebe asked, looking in confusion at Leo. “What happened to them just going up in flames when they’re killed?”

“Not all demons die the same way, Phoebe,” Leo replied simply. “Anyway, that’s not important now; what _is_ important is that the obelisk was recently discovered and brought to the San Francisco Museum to be examined, but it was stolen last night… and, according to what the Elders told me, the guards were drained of their blood and had sustained injuries to their throats.”

Paige swore.

“Angelus, huh?” she asked grimly.

“He’s the only vampire who’d think that big, anyway,” Leo confirmed, nodding slightly apologetically at his sister-in-law. “Trust me, I wish I had better news for you myself; the possibility of Angelus getting his hands on Alcathla is _not_ a pleasant one…”

“OK,” Piper interjected, raising a hand as she looked anxiously at her husband, “care to explain the ‘send the world to Hell’ thing you mentioned there for me here, because I gotta say, of everything we heard here, _that’s_ the part I’m not loving.”

“Well,” Leo continued, as he turned to look at his wife, “while the Underworld we know is a primarily demonic realm, it can still be accessed by most magical creatures operating on our own plane of existence. However, the Demon Universe- from which the first true demons, demons that are to the demons of today what the dinosaurs are to birds, came from- exists in a dimension separate from our own. With one breath, Acathla will create a vortex, a kind of...”

He waved his hand uncertainly as though trying to find an appropriate analogy. “…whirlpool, I think was the best term the Elders could come up with… that will pull everything on Earth into that dimension, where any non-demon life will suffer horrible and eternal torment.”

“Ah,” Paige said, swallowing slightly as she looked at her brother-in-law. “So… not a good thing for him to have a hold of, huh?”

Leo shook his head. “Don’t worry; it’s unlikely Angelus knows how to wake Alcathla up in the first place,” he said, as he looked at the young part-Whitelighter. “It requires the blood of someone worthy to awaken him by removing the sword that impaled him; Angelus will never work out the definition of ‘worthy’ in time.”

“OK,” Paige said, nodding briefly at the ex-World War Two medic before she turned to look resolutely at her sisters. “Well, I think it’s safe to say that we have _definitely_ moved past the point where we can just drop out of the magic game; we _need_ to find Angelus and-”

Piper’s mobile suddenly rang, prompting the sisters to break off their conversation as Piper pulled it out and held it to her ear.

“Hello?” she said.

“ _Hello_ ,” an unfamiliar voice said on the other end. “ _Is this… Piper Halliwell_?”

Piper nodded uncertainly.“Yeah…” she said, looking up at her sisters in confusion. “Who’s this?”

“ _My name is Jenny Calendar_ ,” the voice on the other end said. “ _I’ve been contacted regarding your… Angelus issues… by a Whitelighter- an old charge of your husband’s, I understand- who gave me this number and told me to call you_.”

Piper’s eyes widened.

“Wait a minute…” she said, her eyes wide at the implications of that statement. “Do you mean…?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Jenny Calender’s voice said on the other end of the line. “ _I’m a member of the tribe that originally cursed Angelus with his soul_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly, if anyone’s wondering why Jenny just called rather than visiting directly, she didn’t exactly feel it would be right to just drop in on people she’d never met without calling ahead to explain herself. Secondly, she introduced herself as ‘Jenny Calendar’ rather than ‘Janna Kalderash’ because she finds it easier to use that name when dealing with people outside the clan; she’s never totally agreed with the clan’s policy of isolating itself from the world at large, so she doesn’t want to isolate herself even further from the people around her by using a strange name. As for how this will impact the events of ‘Witch Way Now’… you’ll just have to wait and see


	27. Spell-Related Confrontations

“What?” Paige asked, noting her sister’s suddenly shocked stance as she listened to whoever was on the other end of the phone call she was currently having. “Who is it?”

Looking up at her sister, Piper smiled slightly.

“Her name’s Jenny Calendar,” she said as she looked at her sister. “She… well, she says she’s a member of the tribe who originally cursed Angel with his soul.”

Just as Piper had expected, Paige’s eyes widened with excitement at that particular revelation. Without waiting to ask her sister if she could do so- not that Piper would have objected, of course; she knew how much this whole situation meant to her youngest sister-, she grabbed the phone from Piper’s hands and held it to her ear.

“Hello?” she said, unable to conceal her eagerness at this latest turn of events. “My… my name’s Paige Matthews; I’m… I was dating Angel before he lost his soul.”

For a moment there was a stunned silence on the other end of the line, and then, just when Paige was starting to worry she’d terminated the call by mistake, someone finally spoke.

“ _You… you’re a Charmed One_?” she said. “ _And you were_ _dating_ Angelus?”

“No; I was dating _Angel_ ,” Paige countered, shaking off her initial excitement to focus on the matter at hand. “Angel _isn’t_ Angelus; he would _never_ do anything like what Angelus has done to our lives since Angel lost his soul. Angel is the kindest, bravest, most tortured man I’ve ever met, while Angelus is a totally ruthless bastard who’d do anything if it meant he’d get a quick kill. They share memories and a body, but that’s all that they have in common; where it counts, Angelus is _not_ Angel.”

For a moment there was silence at the other end of the line, and then the voice at the other end spoke again.

“ _What…_ is _he like_?” she asked, sounding slightly curious about the reasons for Paige’s sudden hostility towards her for her treatment of Angel.

Smiling slightly, Paige leant against a nearby wall, trying to ignore the continuous sound of the music from the nearby radio.

“Trust me on this; everything you know about Angelus, Angel isn’t,” she told the woman on the phone. “I only got my powers last year- the why of that isn’t important, so don’t ask-, and, when I was totally freaked out about what was happening to me and felt like I was totally out of my depth, potentially easy prey for the self-proclaimed Source of All Evil to win me over to his team…”Even after all the grief that had occurred to her since then, Paige couldn’t stop herself from smiling at the memory. “When I wished I’d never even learnt I _had_ sisters, Angel was there for me to help me learn what I was dealing with and how I could cope with what I had become. He taught me how to fight without relying on powers, he gave me a few pointers on some of the ‘rules’ of our branch of magic to stop me making some serious mistakes… hell, he staked his sire- his _sire_ , for crying out loud- to save me from her…”

Looking up at the ceiling, she was unable to stop herself from letting out a brief, wistful sigh at the memory of what he’d been back before everything had gone to hell, before she forced her mind back on track and continued to speak into the phone. “Anyway, the point is, whatever Angelus did to you, Angel’s not only paid for it, he’s helping to make sure Angelus suffers for it. I mean, from what I’ve gathered in my fights with him, the bastard still remembers everything Angel did when he was in control of the body without actually being able to influence anything Angel does; can you even imagine how much Angelus must have hated the fact that he had to get by on a diet of pig’s blood from plastic bags Angel kept in the fridge before the curse was broken?”

When Paige heard a slight chuckle at the other end of the line, she knew that she’d made the impression that she was after. She wasn’t going to delude herself into thinking that the woman would automatically start to think of Angel as the innocent party in all this- if she was one of the tribe who’d cursed him, there was doubtless far too much bad blood on her side to get over it that easily-, but if she could convince her to see that, for Angelus, being cursed with a soul _was_ still a great punishment…

It was possible that she might still have a chance to get her boyfriend back.“Look,” she said, glancing at her watch as she ran over a few quick calculations in her head, “I can’t really talk here, but I might have a good location for us to continue this conversation later; that is, if you think you can… well, _fix_ the curse?”

“‘ _Fix’ the curse_?” Jenny repeated, sounding slightly sceptical. “ _You mean… you want to omit the clause_?”

“What else could I mean?” Paige retorted, leaning against the wall as she spoke into the phone, a resolved expression on her face even as she knew that the person on the other end of the line couldn’t see her. “Look, our Whitelighter filled us in on why you had that clause in the first place- your branch of magic needs a loophole if it’s going to work on something that big-, but from what he said, the only reason you _needed_ to do that was because you didn’t have enough power when casting at the time; wouldn’t having the three most powerful witches on the planet available to you help you negate that _particular_ little defect? I know it’s asking a lot, but seriously, if you can _permanently_ stick Angel back in control, I can guarantee for you that he’ll do _everything_ he can to make sure that Angelus keeps on getting _very_ hacked-off at being unable to do anything but fight _with_ the good guys rather than trying to _kill_ them.”

For a moment, there was only silence over the line, leaving Paige wondering if she was asking too much of the woman on the other end, before, just when she was contemplating hanging up, Jenny sighed.

“ _Well_ …” the gypsy woman said, her tone reflecting her uncertainty at the prospect even as the fact that she was clearly thinking about it gave Paige some hope, “ _if you and your sisters are willing to help with the casting of it, there_ might _be enough power to re-curse Angelus without the clause… it won’t be easy, but I can have the elders of the clan look over it up here and see what they can do about getting rid of the clause while leaving the rest of the curse intact_ …”

“Great,” Paige said, smiling as she continued to keep her ear pressed to the phone, the better to avoid missing something because of the music. “So… how soon can you get down here?”

“ _To San Francisco_?” Jenny said, sounding slightly surprised at the suggestion. “ _I’m… well, I could probably get a flight fairly easily- we have a couple of members of the clan working at the local airport in case of events like this-, but why-_ ”

“Let’s just say that the sooner we get Angel back in control of Angelus, the better,” Paige said simply; there was no point in beating about the bush, but the less people who knew about Alcathla the better as far as she was concerned. “As for where you’re to meet me when you get here, the airport and the house are a bit risky at the moment, but I do have another address if you want it…”

With that said, she quickly gave Jenny the address of Angel’s old apartment building- Angelus had never returned there; evidently, from what Paige recalled from what Angel had told her about Angelus’s mentality, he hadn’t found it ‘grand’ enough for his ego-, and arranged to meet the young woman there the next morning after she’d had an opportunity to talk with her family about the situation; based on Leo’s comments about them having lost touch with the Elders, they were most likely arranging their own transport.

“So… see you then?” she concluded hopefully, her finger already hovering over the ‘Terminate Call’ button; as important as restoring Angel’s soul was to her, the immediate issue of the FBI agent and the theft of Alcathla also needed to be attended to before anything was decidied either way.

“ _Sure thing_ ,” Jenny said, sounding slightly hesitant (Not that Paige could blame her; it couldn’t exactly be easy to learn that you’d been responsible for a technically innocent man having to live with a century of guilt for crimes he technically didn’t commit) but nevertheless resolved to do what she’d said she’d do. “ _I’ll… I’ll see you tomorrow, hopefully_.”

Even though she knew that Jenny wouldn’t be able to see it, Paige smiled broadly at that last comment.

She knew that Jenny knew why she’d wanted to get in touch with the other woman in the first place, but it was nevertheless still good to have _some_ confirmation that she was willing to help Paige get the love of her life back.

(Plus, of course, although she’d never admit it to her sisters, it also gave them a definite reason to _not_ take up the Angel of Destiny’s offer; how could they pass up the chance to give Angel another chance at… existence?)

With that, she terminated the call and smiled up at her sisters, feeling somewhat better about their situation.

“She’s coming over tonight,” she said, smiling over at her sisters despite the loud noise as the radio continued to blare in the background. “I’ll meet her at the ex’s tonight; she’s bringing the you-know-what as well.”

“Excuse me, what?” Phoebe said, looking at Paige as though her sister had just grown another head. “You’re really going to try and _re-curse_ Angel?”

“Uh… yeah?” Paige said, looking back at Phoebe in confusion. “You got a problem with that?”

“Oh, how about the fact that he’s _killed people_!” Phoebe yelled, her composure apparently snapping as she walked forward to stand in front of Paige. “What is it with you; you can’t accept _Cole_ when he’d done _nothing_ to you, but you’re just going to accept _Angel_ back as though he hasn’t been trying to brutally _murder_ you for the last few months?”

“Crucial difference there; _Angelus_ did all this _without_ having a soul in him!” Paige countered, her arms folded as she glared at Phoebe before stepping back. “Did that ever even register with you? Cole-” she raised a finger on her left hand and held it up in front of her, “- _always_ had his soul even when he was the big bad demon assassin for the last hundred or so years; he only stopped because of you, and, touching as that is, he _was_ still the same guy who committed those murders! In _Angel’s_ case-” she extended her right index finger as she lowered her left hand, “-the _demon_ that got his body after he was turned spent a century and a half terrorising Europe, than he got his _soul_ back and could barely even kill to be with the woman he’d obsessed over for a century and a half; he spent the better part of a century eating _rats_ rather than attacking humansbefore he met us, and from what I gather they _really_ don’t taste very nice! Angel is _not_ Angelus, Phoebe; if there’s even a _chance_ that I can get him back-”

“You think I didn’t think about figuring out a way to get the Source’s powers out of _Cole_?” Phoebe retorted, glaring at her half-sister. “Believe me, I did, and I realised it wasn’t worth it; there was no _way_ we could just-”

“Remove his powers and stick them somewhere else?” Paige retorted, glaring in frustration at Phoebe despite the blaring radio behind them. “Yeah, like _that_ was ever a serious option; we stick his magic in the next willing demon and just have to deal with the Source all over again! At least with Jenny’s spell we have a _chance_ of getting Angel back _without_ releasing Angelus-!”

“OK, if this keeps up you’ll be yelling _over_ the radio; can we deal with this _after_ we’ve sorted out the FBI agent thing?” Piper interjected, looking impatiently between her two sisters. “Phoebe, if Cole’s so eager to talk to you, I think you need to deal with that particular issue now before we do anything else; something tells me that a little detail like us losing our powers won’t matter to him wherever he’s gone. Paige, try and stay silent and out of the way until we’ve got this whole FBI thing sorted out, I’ll say you’re sick or you went to work or something; we need at least one of us to be free to meet with Jenny when she shows up, and you’re the only one of us who can get there without Leo being needed.”

“Right,” Paige said, nodding in acknowledgement at her sister before she walked over and turned off the radio.

“Well,” she said, speaking slightly louder than she would normally to better guarantee that anyone monitoring them would hear her, “if anyone wants me, I’m off for a walk; don’t call unless you _really_ need me, OK?”

“Check,” Phoebe replied briefly as Paige turned around and walked out of the attic, heading for the door as her sisters remained up the stairs.

The truth was, in many ways, she was glad for the chance to get out; with the possibility that she might get Angel back now a more genuine hope than it had been for a while, she was grateful for an opportunity to spend some time to herself to think about what she should do.

After all, as much as she might miss Angel, would he _want_ to come back and have to deal with the memories of what Angelus had done to them while he wasn’t there?

It had taken him over a century to get to where he was now after spending a century and a half terrorising people he hadn’t known as anyone other than Angelus; he’d spent the last few months targeting people who’d thought of him as a friend as _Angel_.

But, on the other hand, didn’t he deserve a chance to make up for what he’d done?Didn’t he deserve the opportunity to keep doing as many good deeds as he could to make up for what his body had done when his soul hadn’t been in it?

* * *

  
“So…” Piper said after a moment’s pause, before she looked over inquiringly at Phoebe. “Shall we get down to business?”

“Yep,” Phoebe said, before she walked over to turn the radio back on, subsequently heading back to the Book of Shadows. “Look, whatever Paige may feel about Cole, the fact remains that he _did_ have a soul; with that in mind, I think my best bet is the “To Find a Lost Love” spell and send myself to the astral plane… or wherever it is that he’s gone… and…”

She shrugged. “I dunno, give him closure? Maybe if he gets the idea that _I’m_ moving on, he’ll try and do the same…”

“Look, while _that’s_ as good a chance as any we’re going to get to solve the Cole issue, regarding that spell… shouldn’t we maybe let Paige know about it?” Piper put in, indicating the stairs that Paige had just gone down. “I mean, I’m not exactly eager to give up on Angel, but given the stakes involved, maybe if she had the chance to talk to him about what he wants her to do…”

Glancing at Phoebe, Piper was only slightly disappointed to see a brief flash of resentment cross Phoebe’s face- couldn’t she make more of an effort to be happy that _somebody_ might get their (technically) dead lover back?- before her younger sister shook her head. “Trust me, I thought about that, but the way the spell’s worded, I couldn’t be sure whether it would take her to Angel’s soul or just directly to Angelus-”

“They’re _not_ the same person, Phoebe,” Piper interjected, staring at her sister in frustration. She tried to be relatively neutral when it came to her sisters’ disagreeing over their demon boyfriends- honestly, they both dated reformed killers; why was it always so hard for Phoebe and Paige to find common ground?-, but there were times when she felt that both of them could have stood to acknowledge that Angel and Cole were significantly different from Angelus and Belthazor. “It’s like Cole and Belthazor; just because they use the same body doesn’t mean they’re the same mentally-”

“Angel and Angelus have the same body; would the spell even be able to distinguish between them?” Phoebe countered, shaking her head resolutely at her older sister. “Sorry, but unless you can guarantee that this thing can tell the difference, we’re not using it; I am _not_ going to risk giving Angelus what he wants on a silver platter, OK? At least with this spell I can guarantee focusing on Cole; he and Belthazor definitely _don’t_ look anything like each other.”

“All _right_ …” Piper groaned, shaking her head slightly- God, her sisters were both as bad as each other as far as she was concerned-, before she turned her attention back to the window. “I’ll see what I can do about distracting the men outside in case your spell causes any… fireworks; you just get ready and cast the spell when I give the word, OK?”

“What kind of ‘distraction’ are we talking about here?” Phoebe asked, looking inquiringly at Piper.

“Nothing _illegal_ ,” Piper said, smiling reassuringly at Phoebe. “Just… giving them something else to look at.”

* * *

  
A few minutes later, Phoebe was sitting by the attic window, anxiously looking outside as Piper walked out, having changed her original green top for a blouse that better emphasised her cleavage and carrying a tray full of glasses of lemonade. As the workmen practically dropped their tools in their haste to get the lemonade, none of them noticed Piper discreetly flick one hand at the phone company van that she’d earlier identified as being the most likely location for the FBI agent and his equipment; she’d been unable to precisely aim from the house, but out in the street she was able to be more precise.

As soon as she saw Piper flick her hand, Phoebe turned off the radio and sat in the centre of the circle she’d prepared earlier, going over the spell she was about to recit in her mind one last time before she spoke it.

“Writher my love,” she began, crossing her fingers slightly as she spoke, “wherever you be, through time and space, take my heart near to thee.”

For a moment, all was dark…

* * *

  
Then, as though she’d simply fallen asleep and woken up somewhere else, Phoebe found herself standing in what she could only describe as a stereotypical Hell, filled with jagged rocks, fire, and a dark red sky. For a moment, Phoebe simply stared around her in shock, but then a loud sound that resembled a cross between a roar and a hiss sent her running, only to collide with

“Cole?” she said, looking at him uncertainly as he clutched her arms, a half-mad expression in his eyes, what looked like several days’ growth of beard on his chin, and his clothes in tatters.

“What are you _doing_ here?” he hissed, glaring at her. “Nobody’s allowed _here_.”

“Here?” Phoebe repeated, looking around her in confusion. “Where _is_ here?”

Before Cole could reply, a low growl was heard from off to the side, prompting him to glance up at a nearby rock with a resolved expression.

“We’ve got to move fast,” he said grimly, as he turned back to look at her. “Come on!”

Before Phoebe could ask him for further information, he had grabbed her wrist and the two of them were hurrying towards a nearby rock. Phoebe vaguely heard something burst out of the ground where she had been standing only a few moments before, and felt something hit the rock below her feet as she scrambled up after Cole, but she couldn’t spare the time to look behind her until they had reached the top, at which point the only sign that anything had been there originally was something burrowing along underneath the sand on the ground below them.

“We’ll be safe here, but not for long,” Cole said by way of explanation, as he glanced back at Phoebe; it was only now that she noticed that his voice was far deeper than it had been the last time she’d seen him, and it sounded somewhat raspier as well. “We have to keep moving; if we’re caught, the beast will devour us both for eternity.”

For reasons not even Phoebe was entirely sure she understood, she reached forward and hugged him, grateful when he hugged her back.

“I knew you’d hear my cries…” he said softly.

It was that comment, more than anything, that prompted Phoebe to step back, suddenly uncomfortable about embracing someone she’d actually vanquished only a few days ago.

“Uh… Cole-” she began to say.

“It’s all right,” Cole said, cutting her off mid-sentence. “You did the right thing. The Source is gone, devoured.”

As Cole spoke- his voice, Phoebe was grateful to note, sounding slightly better now, as though it had simply grown hoarse from not being used-, Phoebe glanced around uncertainly at her surroundings.

“This is the waste land,” Cole said, noting her confusion, “where all vanquished magic-based demons end up; vampires like Angel and his class of demon go… somewhere else. The beast feeds on their essence, their powers.”

“So… what are you doing here?” Phoebe asked, looking at her ex-husband (Was that the right term, given that they hadn’t exactly divorced and he was, if not alive, at least still aware?) in confusion. She knew that it sounded rather blunt, but it was a legitimate question; if this ‘beast’ devoured the essence of all vanquished demons, how could Cole still be here?

“Holding on to our love,” Cole replied, allowing himself a slight smile as he looked at her. “I'm a demon with a soul, Phoebe; apart from Angel- back before that whole thing with the Judge, of course; Angelus is just your average vampire-, there’s never been another recorded example of demons like us actually _having_ souls. That's why my soul's been able to cling here, keep from moving on.”

“Oh…” Phoebe said, briefly allowing herself to feel touched at that comment before she forced her mind back on track. “But… but that’s not healthy. Everyone has to move on, you know… sooner… or later…”

Even as Phoebe spoke, a part of her wondered if she could use that argument to talk Paige out of trying the curse again, but she quickly pushed it to the side; even if Paige agreed, now that she’d gone to these kind of lengths to find out why Cole was trying to make contact with her, she’d be a bit of a hypocrite if she didn’t allow Paige to try everything she could to help _her_ lover.

“Yeah, well,” Cole said, shaking his head slightly as he glared at her, drawing her attention back to their current conversation, “that's easy for you to say; you'll get to go to the good place. Me-”

Before he could complete that sentence, a loud scream suddenly came from the sky, prompting the two of them to glance in the direction of the sound and see a figure fall from the sky, bursting into flames mid-fall and leaving only a glowing blue light to hit the ground. For a few seconds, the lights simply remained on the ground, reminding Phoebe of the lights created when Leo and Paige orbed- why would a demon’s powers look like something a Whitelighter would create?-, but then a large, snake-like thing that Phoebe could only assume was what had attacked her and Cole earlier popped out of the ground and literally _sucked_ up the power before slithering back into the ground.

“OK,” Phoebe said, anxiously turning back to look at Cole, “you know, you can't keep running from that thing forever.”

“That’s why I’ve been calling you,” Cole explained, a smile on his face for the first time since she’d arrived down here. “You can help save me… save _us_.”

Phoebe wasn’t entirely comfortable with Cole’s automatic assumption that they’d get back together if he escaped- too much had happened since the Source had originally possessed him for anything involving them to be that simply resolved…

But, at the same time, he’d only ended up in this mess in the first place because he’d taken on the Hollow to try and save her and her family.

Didn’t that mean she had an obligation to at least _try_ and help him now?“How?” she asked uncertainly.

“Get Leo to get the Grimoire,” Cole explained. “That resurrection spell that the wizard was after? You can use that to resurrect _me_.”

“What?” Phoebe said, staring at Cole incredulously; after what she’d gone through the last time she turned to dark magic, Cole was actually encouraging her to use a dark spellbook?

“It’s easy,” Cole continued, apparently unaware or unconcerned about her initial reaction. “I’ll walk you through it; all you have to do is…”

As Phoebe turned away, Cole trailed off mid-sentence, looking at her in confusion.

“What?” he asked her. “What’s the matter?”

“I, uh…” Phoebe said, briefly unsure about saying what she was about to say before she finally managed to get it out. “I can't use dark magic again… I won't.”

“Not even for us?” Cole asked.

For a moment, as Phoebe turned to look at the man she had once loved, her mind flashed briefly to Paige, willing to risk everything on a modified version of a highly complex spell to try and bring the man she loved back to his body…

In a strange way, for the first time since Paige had started her relationship with Angel, Phoebe could almost relate to her half-sister; even when she knew that even _thinking_ about doing what would need to be done to bring Cole back was going to be risky, there was a part of that just wanted to hang the risks and at least try _something_ if it would manage to get him back to her…

Then, before she could continue that train of thought, the snake-thing wrapped itself around her leg and yanked her off the rock that she was currently standing on.

“PHOEBE!” Cole yelled, running forward to grab her arms before the creature dragged her off the rock. “ _Hold on_!”

“ _Help me_!” Phoebe yelled desperately back at Cole, as the creature continued to pull at her legs. “ _Use your powers_!”

“I don’t _have_ any powers!” Cole replied, his teeth clenched as he tried desperately to keep a hold on Phoebe even as the creature attempted to pull her towards it. For several tortured moments, Phoebe felt herself being pulled in two directions simultaneously, an unknown nightmare behind her and the man she’d already vanquished once in front of her… he was losing his grip… she was being hauled closer and closer to the ground and the monster below her…

* * *

  
Then, with a scream and a jolt, she was sitting up in the attic, Piper anxiously sitting beside her.

“It’s OK; you’re OK,” Piper’s voice said, penetrating the terror that had temporarily overwhelmed Phoebe’s brain as she sat up, gasping for air.

“Oh my God…” Phoebe whispered, reaching up to her chest as though to make sure that she wasn’t still being attacked by the creature that had so nearly consumed her. “What was I _thinking_ …?”

Before anything else could be said, there was a knock at the door that Phoebe definitely didn’t find encouraging.


	28. The Motives of Agent Jackman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, what you don’t see here- such as the sisters’ capture of Selena- happened the same way as it did in the show

Paige wasn’t sure if it was the fresh air, the freedom from the ‘confinement’- a bit of a strong word, but it did technically apply; she’d been inside a bit too long recently- of the manor, or just the ability to think about whatever she wanted without being distracted that did it, but after walking around for a couple of hours, she finally came to a conclusion that she was certain was the right one.

Regardless of the risk involved in casting the curse, Angel had been a good man, a powerful warrior and an _incredible_ boyfriend to her during those beautiful few months they’d had together after they’d started dating but before the whole mess with the Judge.

If that didn’t mean he deserved another chance to redeem himself for Angelus’s sins, Paige wasn’t sure what did; she knew, more than she’d ever known anything, that she _needed_ to do this.

If she and her sisters couldn’t use their powers to save someone she cared about from a gate that was, if not actually worse than death, possibly that very same thing for them- she’d never actually asked Angel if he had any memories about what his _soul_ had experienced while Angelus was active that first time around; did it go on to some kind of hellish afterlife while the body was still active or did it just hang around in some kind of limbo until the vampire actually bought it and it went on to wherever it would go after something like that?-, then what was the point in her even becoming a witch in the first place?

No matter what the risks were, she _would_ get Angel’s soul back in his body; she was determined to achieve that goal at least, even if it was the last thing she ever did with her magic.

All she had to do now was convince her sisters to help her with at least this one last spell; even if she couldn’t convince them to keep their powers on a permanent basis, she could still get Angel back.

As she approached the house, however, she swiftly froze as she saw a man she didn’t recognise, dressed in a brown leather jacket, brown trousers and a white shirt, walk out of the front door and head towards a van that had been opposite the house when she left.

 _Crap_ , Paige thought to herself. _If that’s not that damn FBI agent, I don’t know who it is_ …

Hiding behind a nearby car, Paige waited a few more seconds as the van drove away, before she closed her eyes, concentrated…

* * *

  
And then, a few seconds later, she was standing inside the dining room, her arms folded as she looked at Piper and Phoebe.

“OK, quick question; what was the FBI guy doing _inside_ our house?” she asked, turning to look at Piper as she tried to call on memories of Angel’s old authoritative manner; she may have been the youngest sister, but she hadn’t spent several months with an over two-hundred-and-forty-year-old vampire without picking up _some_ useful tips about asserting herself. “I thought we were trying to _avoid_ him, not invite him in for a quick chat about stuff!”

“Uh, funny story on that front…” Piper admitted, smiling uncertainly at Paige. “Turns out he’s actually an occult killings specialist who wants our help in capturing some witch hunter.”

Paige blinked.

“Witch hunter?” she repeated incredulously. “People still do that?”

“Well, this woman does, at least; according to Agent Jackman it’s pretty much in her blood,” Phoebe explained, indicating a plastic bag on the table. “He apparently had her in custody for a while before she got away; we help him track her, he’ll chuck the files he has on us into the fire and all’s well and good.”

“Ah,” Paige said simply, studying the bag for a few seconds before shaking her head. “I don’t buy it.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Phoebe agreed, nodding slightly as she studied the bag. “Maybe we should just let the Angel of Destiny take our powers; he can’t exactly blackmail us with them if we don’t _have_ them any more-”

“OK, sorry to reign on your parade, but I _really_ don’t agree with that,” Paige interjected, raising a hand as she glared at Phoebe. “We got these powers to do _good_ , remember? If we don’t use them to try and _help_ people, why did Angel pretty much dedicate the last few months when _he_ was in control of his body to help me learn about them? He knew I’d need everything I had to use them properly; we ”

“You don’t know the _hell_ I’ve lived through since I got these powers, Paige!” Phoebe countered, walking around the table to stare her younger sister directly in the face. “You didn’t _live_ it-”

“Oh, really?” Paige countered, folding her arms as she stared at Phoebe. “Let’s see, not only did my boyfriend go psycho on me just because I triggered some dumb loophole in the curse that made him a good guy, but I was turned into a vampire- and a cheap second-rate imitation one at that; I wasn’t even one of the tough ones-, I was shrunk, you and I actually switched _bodies_ at one point, and-“

“Well, imagine going through that for _years_ ,” Phoebe stated grimly, shaking her head slightly as she sat down in a nearby chair. “All I'm _asking_ is for my life back…”

“And all _I’m_ asking for is a chance to save my boyfriend by giving him back his soul!” Paige retorted, glaring resolutely back at Phoebe. “Y’know, I didn’t even _ask_ for any of this, but now that I’ve got it-”

“OK, guys, enough; we need to _focus_ ,” Piper interjected, raising her hands as she stood up to stand between her two sisters, looking resolutely between the two of them. “Right now, the best thing we can do is what the Angel suggested, so, Paige, you are going to head over to Angel’s apartment and sort out the curse thing with Jenny, and Phoebe, _you_ are gonna go up to the attic and get started on this stuff.”

With that, she handed Phoebe the stuff that had been so recently left behind by the FBI agent and waved her up towards the attic, before turning to look critically at Paige. “What are you still doing here? Keep moving; Jackman hasn’t met you yet, and I’d rather he didn’t unless he has to!”

“Uh… you _do_ know he’s probably got files on me too, right?” Paige pointed out slightly sheepishly.

“Yeah, but I’m assuming the full details of your time with Angel aren’t exactly the kind of thing he can just dig up from anywhere; it’s pretty likely he’s got no real idea who Angel _really_ was and what he taught you, so I’d prefer your full skills such as your hand-to-hand abilities remain a secret unless we know everything about him,” Piper clarified, before she shook her head and waved Paige towards the door. “Anyway, just… try and make contact with Jenny, OK? Phoebe and I’ll let you know if we’re available to re-do the curse when she gets here, but in the meantime I think it might be best if you two just… had a minute to cool off, you know?”

Paige didn’t reply; based on Piper’s attitude at the moment, it was clear that further attempts at protest wouldn’t get her any further than they had done up until this point. Nodding briefly at her eldest sister, Paige simply tilted her head back and orbed out of the manor, heading for Angel’s old apartment building.

If nothing else, Piper had a point with that last comment of hers; right now the wounds caused by the loss of Angel and Cole were just too fresh for Phoebe and her to be sure of spending any amount of time together in this current crisis without it turning into a yelling match…

* * *

  
A couple of hours later, Paige lay back on Angel’s old bed, staring up at the ceiling and trying not to focus too much on the fact that Angel’s scent still seemed to surround the sheets even after he hadn’t been in this apartment for months (She wouldn’t have lain on the bed if she’d had a choice, but the chairs in the apartment hadn’t been purchased with comfort in mind given that Angel had never really invited anyone over to _his_ place that often, so the bed had been the only option if she wanted to remain comfortable). So far Jenny hadn’t arrived at the apartment and Paige’s phone remained silent, but she saw no harm in remaining comfortable while she waited for one of the two to show up; she’d be doing nobody any good if she was uncomfortable and cranky when somebody either arrived to prepare to restore her boyfriend or called to let her know her presence was needed at the mansion…

The question of which of those two events would occur first was finally answered when her mobile phone rang in her pocket, prompting her to pull the phone out and hold it to her ear after a quick glance at the caller ID.

“Yeah?” she asked, sitting up on the bed as she spoke. “What’s up?”

“ _Well_ ,” Piper’s voice said at the other end of the line, “ _firstly, Darryl confirmed that there_ is _a serial killer out there doing what Jackman told us about, so that part’s legit at least- oh, and Leo confirmed that the Angel of Destiny’s genuine, just so you know_.”

“OK, got that; anything else?” Paige asked, determined to move past that part of the issue as swiftly as possible; she may be trying to convince herself to respect whatever decision her sisters came to as far as the whole ‘giving up our powers’ thing went- so long as they at least tried to help her get Angel back first-, but she didn’t want to talk about it any longer than she had to.

“ _Unfortunately_ ,” her eldest sister continued, “ _it seems that_ Jackman _has more information on us than he shared with us originally_.”

“By which you mean…?” Paige asked waving a hand promptingly before she reminded herself that Piper couldn’t see the motion.

“ _By which I mean that his files include our_ entire _genealogy, dating all the way back to Melinda Warren_ ,” Piper clarified.

Paige blinked.

 _That_ couldn’t be good…

“He’s traced us back _that_ far?” she said, raising her eyebrows in shock as she spoke. “Well, that _definitely_ isn’t too encouraging; why’d he go to all that effort if he just wants our help with this one case?”

“ _You’re not the only one worried about that; Phoebe has already made it clear that she has_ no _interest in us turning into witch-style ‘Charlie’s Angels’- or should that be ‘Jackman’s Angels’?- because of this guy_ ,” Piper confirmed, her own distaste for the idea clear in her voice.

“Yeah… too bad we still have to stop the bad guy even if the _other_ guy isn’t that great either,” Paige sighed, standing up and stretching slightly before she returned her attention to the conversation. “Just let me leave something in case Jenny shows up while I’m away, and I’ll be right with you.”

“ _A_ note?” Piper repeated. “ _You sure that’s a good idea? I mean, what if Angelus finds it_ -”

“Piper,” Paige interjected, pressing the phone against her ear with one shoulder as she picked up a nearby pad of paper- Angel had shown her where he kept his drawing supplies on a couple of occasions, although he’d declined to show her any of his work at the time-, “given that he’s currently trying to wake up a demon who could suck Earth into hell just by breathing- and we have got to remember to get that sucker somewhere safe when we’re done with Angelus, by the way; maybe the Elders can dump it somewhere-, I somehow doubt he’ll have someone keeping an eye on the flat he _abandoned_ months ago that nobody’s even thought about visiting for _months_. See you in a tick, OK?”

With that said, the half-Whitelighter terminated the call, wrote the last sentence on her brief note- JENNY- WILL BE BACK SOON; DON’T GO ANYWHERE- PAIGE-, placed it on the bed- she had already removed anything worth stealing after Angelus had first ‘woken up’, so she rarely ever bothered to lock the door even when she left by that route- and then orbed away.

Had Paige glanced at the apartment window at that moment- the sun having vanished from the sky as she lay thoughtfully on the bed-, she would have noticed the figure hanging off a drainpipe, staring at the note that now lay on the bed with a slight smirk on his face.

 _Something tells me that Angelus is going to be_ very _interested in this_ … he mused to himself, beginning the rapid descent down the drainpipe as he considered the potential implications of his latest discovery.

After all, the boss’s ‘good side’s’ main squeeze leaving a note in his old apartment after all this time? There was definitely _something_ interesting going on there…

* * *

  
A couple of hours later, Paige stood resignedly in the living room, her arms folded as she looked at the unconscious body of the ‘witch hunter’ that they had been practically forced to target; the fact that they might have had to deal with her eventually anyway wasn’t something that made Paige like the situation they were in any more. Glancing up as the sound of footsteps approached the room, Paige saw a somewhat bulky man in a suit- whether the bulk was from fat or muscle Paige couldn’t be sure- with slightly receding dark brown hair walk in, the man instantly glancing in her direction in a manner that was clearly intended to seem casual but that Paige’s combat training instantly identified as probing for information.

“Paige, right?” he said after a moment’s pause. “Agent Jackman-”

“I know who you are; can we just move on?” Paige retorted, jerking her head towards the sofa as she folded her arms. Maybe it was Angel’s ‘get-in-the-enemy’s-face’ attitude rubbing off on her- he generally operated on the principal that if you confronted a known enemy with your own lack of fear as soon as possible it tended to throw them off by making them question their control of the situation-, but as far as she was concerned the situation here was simple; she didn’t like this guy and she wasn’t going to make a secret of it.

“Did she put up much of a fight?” he asked, looking briefly at her before he looked back at the sisters.

“No, but her bodyguards did,” Phoebe added, omitting the fact that it hadn’t been much of one; the guns had been unexpected, but it wasn’t the most challenging thing they’d ever encountered.

“Bodyguards?” Jackman said, in a tone that Paige could have almost thought was concerned if it wasn’t for the fact that this was the guy who was blackmailing them. “She had bodyguards?”

“Yep,” Piper confirmed with a brief nod. “Lots of them, with _lots_ of guns, and they weren’t exactly shy about using them.”

“Oh,” Jackman said briefly as he looked back at the figure on the sofa before shrugging dismissively. “She must have known that we were on to her.”

“Yeah, on that topic, isn’t it a bit strange that a _serial killer_ \- someone who generally _doesn’t_ socialise with other people- had hired guns?” Paige countered, glaring critically at the FBI agent as she spoke. “Last time I checked, that’s a pretty solitary profession…”

“Maybe she had accomplices,” Jackman said dismissively. “It’s not important; what’s important is that she’s out of the way.”

“Oh, and the fact that you might not be telling us everything isn’t something we should be concerned about?” Phoebe interjected, glaring at the man before them.

“Maybe I’m not,” Jackman replied, looking coldly back at her. “What are you going to do about it?”

“Well,” Piper said, staring at the man as she folded her arms and walked over to stand between him and Selena, “for one thing, we’re _not_ going to let you take her out of here without a warrant.”

For a moment, Jackman simply stared back at Piper, and then he shook his head with an almost condescending smile.

“You know,” he said as he looked coldly at Piper, “you’re all the same. You think that just because you have gifts, powers, that you're above it all, you're special-”

“Oh, please; if we _really_ thought we were ‘above it all’, would we even have _bothered_ trying to work with you?” Paige interjected, walking forward to glare at the man before her. “Newsflash, buddy; did it ever occur to you that if we _genuinely_ thought that our powers made us ‘better’ than everyone else, we’d probably be using them to make sure that we get whatever we want whenever we want it, regardless of who we hurt in the process? I’ll have you know I only used magic in my job _once_ since I got my powers, and _that_ was because a demon I was dealing with had made me miss an important appointment-”

“And you ‘just wanted to make up for it’, right?” Jackman retorted, a smug look on his face as though Paige had just confessed to something. “My point exactly; you think your powers give you the right to bend the rules-”

“If I _hadn’t_ , a good person would have lost custody of her _child_ ; you think _that’s_ what I should have done?” Paige fired back, glaring at Jackman. “You accuse us of setting ourselves above everyone else, but let me ask you this; does conventional law enforcement _really_ have a means of stopping a guy who can teleport from one place to another? Could cops even come _close_ to taking out a guy who’s technically already dead? Can-?”

“You’re always so arrogant, you know that?” Jackman interrupted, looking coldly at her as he spoke; evidently her attempts to defend their powers had fallen on death ears. “So certain that you and you alone can handle a situation; you never even bother to think about _other_ ways the problem could be dealt with _without_ your involvement.”

“Such as?” Paige asked scathingly.

“ _That_ would be telling,” Jackman replied, the same smug little grin once again on his face before he turned to Piper and pulled out a sheet of paper. “Getting back on topic, here’s your warrant.”

“Yeah, great, good to see it; when do we get _our_ files?” Paige said, drawing the man’s attention back to her.

“When she’s in jail and I feel safe,” Jackman replied simply.

Paige’s eyes narrowed at that statement.

“Are you implying something?” she asked, glaring at the man before her. “If you want to accuse us of something, come out and say it; we have _never_ -”

“Leave it,” Piper said simply as she looked at Paige.

With that the three sisters simply stood in silence, Paige continuing to glare at Jackman as he picked up Selena and left the mansion.

“OK, _that_ isn’t good,” Paige said after a few moments, looking over at her sisters.

“I knew he’d never give those files up…” Piper sighed, shaking her head as she looked at her family. “In case anybody’s wondering, we are _officially_ screwed.”

“Not necessarily,” Phoebe said, looking over at Paige.

The half-Whitelighter’s eyes narrowed angrily.

“What is this, ‘Deny-Paige-what-she-wants-Week’?” she asked, glaring at the advice columnist. “I mean, what about Angel? You’re just going to give up our _only_ chance to get him back just because you don’t want to have to deal with your powers any more?”

“Jackman’s just going to keep using us unless we wipe the slate clean, Paige; this is the _only_ way we’re going to have any kind of a normal life,” Piper said, looking apologetically at her sister. “And we have to face facts; who’s to say that this curse is even going to work? We could be-”

“What if it _does_ work?” Paige countered, glaring back at Piper resolutely. “I _get_ the risks, but I’m _not_ going to give up without even _trying_ to bring him back; he deserves _better_ than that! Besides, as far as this Jackman thing goes, have you even thought about the fact that serial killers _don’t_ have that kind of hired help; if I’ve learned anything from Angel, it’s that serial killers either work solo or only have a couple of allies, they do _not_ hire people for protection!”

For a moment Piper opened her mouth as though she was about to reply, but then she simply stood in silence, looking uncertainly at her youngest sister with a thoughtful expression on her face.

“Point…” she said, looking at Paige thoughtfully as she spoke. “Plus, well, how do you account for Jackman’s amulet?”

“His amulet?” Paige repeated, looking in confusion at Piper.

“He had this power-negating amulet that stopped me from freezing him when he got inside the house; it’s complicated,” Piper explained, before she looked back at Phoebe. “The point is, Paige has a point; how could he have come up with those kind of resources?”

“And…” Phoebe said, raising an uncertain hand as an uncomfortable expression crossed her face, clearly uncertain about what she was about to say but feeling obligated to say it anyway, “as long as we’re on the topic of stuff that doesn’t add up… since when do FBI agents pick up notorious serial killers on their own?”

“ _Another_ good point,” Piper admitted, nodding briefly at her sister before turning around to look at Paige. “Gotta admit, when you start looking at it like that, this whole thing with Jackman _does_ seem a bit strange…”

Standing back slightly, she tilted her head back to look up at ceiling. “Leo?”

No sooner had the name left her mouth than her husband appeared in the traditional swirling balls of light, the unexpected addition of Darryl Morris right beside him.

“We were just coming to find you,” Leo said by way of explanation. “It turns out that Jackman has another genealogy besides yours.”

“Oh, Selena’s?” Piper said, shaking her head reassuringly. “We already know she’s a descendant of witch hunters-”

“Actually, turns out that’s Jackman,” Darryl put in.

“ _What_?” Phoebe yelled, spinning around to look at Darryl in shock. “ _He’s_ the witch hunter?”

“And Selena’s the witch; she was the victim, not the suspect,” Darryl explained, a grim expression on his face as he looked at them. “She was in a safe house because someone’s trying to kill her.”

Paige would never have thought that she could feel as bad as she had felt when she learned that she was the reason that Angel’s curse had been broken those long months ago when Angelus had first come into their lives.

This wasn’t that bad, but it came a damn close second as far as she was concerned.

“We just handed the witch _over_ to the witch hunter who’s been after her?” she said, groaning in frustration. “ _Great_ …”

Just then her phone went off.

“What the…?” she muttered glancing up at Piper and Phoebe in confusion as she pulled the phone out of her pocket and pressed the ‘Accept Call’ button. “Hello?”

“ _Paige Matthews_?” a now-familiar voice said at the other end. “ _This is Jenny; I’m at the apartment. Where are you_?”

As soon as she heard the gypsy’s voice, Paige glanced up to look anxiously as her sisters, fresh concern over her new dilemma now dominating her thoughts.

“It’s Jenny; she’s at the apartment,” she said by way of explanation, looking apologetically at her sisters. “Sorry to cut and run, but, y’know…”

Piper held up a hand.

“No worries; we’ve got it covered,” she said reassuringly. “You go to Jenny and see about setting up the curse; Leo can take Phoebe and me to get Selena out of Jackman’s clutches while he and Darryl see about the files- that isn’t going to be a problem, right?”

“What interest could anyone have in files on victims this guy _might_ have gone after?” Darryl pointed out with a slight smile before his expression became more serious. “We’ll handle that; you just get that girl out of there.”

“Glad to hear it,” Piper said, smiling thankfully at him before she turned to look at her family once again. “OK, everyone; orb on out and move on out, we have an innocent to save and a curse to begin casting.”

Even as she began to orb out, Paige couldn’t stop herself from inwardly cheering in triumph.

Piper hadn’t specifically said so, of course, but the fact that she was being this confident about going into a combat and magic-related situation when earlier she had been contemplating giving up her powers for good seemed to suggest that she was, if not actively changing her earlier position on the subject, at least _thinking_ about changing it.

Maybe she _would_ get to have her cake and eat it too…

* * *

  
“Well well well…” Angelus reflected as he sat in a chair he’d positioned opposite Alcathla, casually rotating an amulet he’d picked up a while back in his left hand as he contemplated the latest news he’d heard. “So… something’s going on in the old apartment, huh?”

Looking over at where Drusilla was currently sitting with some of her dolls as he attempted the ritual to awaken Alcathla- he’d currently taken a break to reflect on the news he’d just received; the ritual wasn’t coming along that well anyway-, he raised a curious eyebrow. “Any recommendations, Dru?”

“The daughter of the naughty angel’s going to be looking for you later, Daddy,” Drusilla replied, as she ‘poured’ a cup of tea for one of the group before her. “Her sisters, the newer naughty angel, and their guest will be back in the soul’s apartment, planning to force him back… she will be alone and they will be alone…”

“Hold on; you’re telling me the army medic, the chef and the columnist have a guest in _my_ apartment who’s come to restore _my_ soul?” Angelus asked, looking with a slight smirk at Drusilla as he stood up. “What is it with people these days; leave an apartment for a few _months_ and they think you don’t want it any more…”

Shaking his head slightly, he glanced over at where some of his men were currently waiting for his next orders while playing a few rounds of what looked like poker from where Angelus was sitting. “Get ready to go; I have a few… uninvited decorators… who need to be reminded of their manners.”

 _Plus, of course_ , Angelus mused to himself as his ‘gang’- for lack of a better term- got to their feet to begin the preparations for the attack, _there’s always the possibility that the Whitelighter’s direct access to the Elders means he knows a_ little _more about waking Alcathla up than I do_ ….


	29. Meeting Jenny Calendar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, sorry for anyone who wanted to actually see Jackman snuff it, but apart from the fact that Paige wasn’t with Piper and Phoebe when it happened, it worked out pretty much the same way it did in the show, and I _really_ wanted to get on to the Angelus-related parts of this chapter, so I decided it wasn’t worth the effort of rewriting that part

As Angelus stood in front of the statue that was Alcathla, his eyes alternating between the sword that held Alcathla frozen before he could begin the great cleansing and the young man who had been dragged off the streets to serve as the sacrifice for this grand scheme, he couldn’t stop himself from chuckling slightly as he thought of what was about to happen.

 _Soon_ , he thought to himself as he stepped forward, his gaze fixed on the man before him, _this whole pathetic world will be gone…_

He’d like to see how long Paige could keep up this little game of theirs when _that_ happened.

She might have been able to hold her own against him _so_ far, of course- the fact that she’d managed to figure out a way to stop him leaving those drawings of hers in particular still got on his nerves; he’d really enjoyed being able to do that again-, but in a world where demons ruled supreme, she _would_ succumb to him eventually.

“I will drink,” he said solemnly as he stopped in front of his soon-to-be victim. “The blood will wash in me, over me, and I will be cleansed. I will be worthy to free Acathla. Bear witness-” he glanced over at where Spike still sat in his wheelchair, staring silently at the sight before him, “-as I ascend-” looking over at Drusilla, he wasn’t surprised to see her grinning like normal, “-as I become.”

With that, he shifted into his game face, grabbed the victim by the hair and hauled the man to his feet, instantly plunging his teeth into the neck before him. Even as he drank the blood, however, he kept the final goal of the current exercise in mind, raising one hand to cover it with the blood before the man fell to the floor, now drained of his vital life-giving fluid.

“Everything that I am,” Angelus said solemnly, as he walked towards the statue, “everything that I have done, has led me here. I have strayed, I have been lost. But Acathla redeems me. With this act, we will be free.”

With that, he grasped the hilt of the sword before him with both hands, instantly generating a brilliantly bright light that could have almost rivalled the sun in its intensity.

For a moment, as Drusilla bathed in the light while his own body shook with the strain of the power being channelled through the sword to him, Angelus could almost _feel_ the sword begin to separate from the demon it had kept entombed for so many centuries…

Then, before he even had time to realise that something wasn’t right, a bright red ‘flame’ of some sort burst from the sword, sending him flying backwards onto the floor, the sword still firmly lodged inside the statue before the assorted vampires.

“Someone wasn't worthy…” Spike said, a mocking sing-song tone to his voice as he sat in his wheelchair and smirked over at his grandsire.

“ _Damn_ it!” Angelus growled as he scrambled to his feet, glaring at the statue before him as he wished he could just punch the damn thing for getting on his nerves this much.

“This is so… _disappointing_!” Drusilla moaned, slumping dejectedly against the wall.

“There _must_ be something I missed,” Angelus growled, pacing up and down before the statue. “The incantations, the blood... I don't know!”

He vaguely registered Spike chuckling off to one side, but pushed it out of his mind to focus on the more immediate matter at hand; as enjoyable as it might be to make fun of his crippled grandchilde, he had to focus on the matter at hand right now.

“What are we going to do?” Drusilla asked, whining slightly as she looked pleadingly over at Angelus.

It was as she looked at him that inspiration struck Angelus.

 _They_ didn’t know how to wake Alcathla up… but maybe someone else _did_.

“What we always do in a time of trouble,” he said, turning to answer Drusilla with a slight smirk on his face. “Turn to an old friend.”

 _He_ might not know how to open Alcathla, but if those damn Elders hadn’t at least told the _Whitelighter_ how to pull it off- if only to make sure he knew what to stop Angelus from trying-, he’d be _very_ surprised.

All he needed to do was get Leo away from the sisters, set up a few of those anti-orbing amulets that Spike still had lying around somewhere, and they’d have the key to waking Alcathla up available to them in one easy-to-torture, hard-to-permanently-kill-by-accident package.

Just when you thought life had dealt you a bad hand, it always seemed to find a way to make up for it…

* * *

  
As soon as Paige had reappeared inside Angel’s old flat, her eyes instantly fell on the dark-haired woman now sitting on Angel’s bed, dressed in a tight white top with long loose sleeves and dark trousers with shoulder-length dark hair.

“Paige Matthews, I assume?” she asked, standing up and walking towards Paige with one hand outstretched. “I’m Jenny Calendar; we spoke on the phone?”

“I guessed,” Paige replied briefly, shaking the offered hand before she forced matters back to business; she knew that it might appear rude, but given that they were operating on a limited time frame in case Angelus figured out how to release Alcathla while they were occupied, she didn’t have time for the social niceties. “So, simple question; can you tweak the curse the way I asked, or can’t you?”

“You mean, omit the clause when we cast it this time?” Jenny replied, smiling slightly at the younger witch. “Theoretically, with your sisters and you contributing your power to the curse, it should be possible to omit the clause. My uncle wasn’t exactly happy about it- as far as he’s concerned, the only difference between Angelus and… Angel… is that Angel has a conscience-, but I convinced him that you had a point when you talked about how Angelus would still suffer when he was forced to watch Angel do good deeds while he couldn’t do anything about them himself.”

“Really?” Paige said, smiling gratefully at the other woman; after so long worrying that she’d never get to see Angel again, that was the first bit of truly good news she’d heard in a while. “You really think you can get the soul to stick?”

“Almost, anyway,” Jenny replied, reaching into a bag lying on the ground beside the bed and pulling out a few sheets of paper. “After some effort, my clan and I managed to alter the curse to mostly remove the clause, but by its very nature we still need to include a loophole if it’s going to work at all. Even with your magic enhancing our strength, all we can accomplish is making it a loophole that’s harder to break; I think that what I’ve got will do the job…”

“What is it?” Paige asked simply; with Alcathla potentially still active, right now all that mattered to her was that they get to the point of the matter as swiftly as possible.

“Well… we can stop the clause from being triggered _every_ time… Angel… becomes too happy, but he needs to consciously be _thinking_ about the curse when that happens,” Jenny explained, looking slightly apologetically at Paige. “It’s the best we can do, really; there are rumours of demonic shamen who might be able to do something more permanent than this, but all the stories about them make it clear that they will only cast the spell after the one seeking the soul has committed an act of sacrifice or passed various tests to prove that his desire is strong enough to cope with the burden he’ll receive, and since Angelus would never _willing_ seek a soul…”

“There’s no point in even trying to get those guys to do it ‘cause Angelus wouldn’t even bother passing the tests; gotcha,” Paige said, nodding briefly at the gypsy (She still couldn’t believe gypsies actually still _existed_ these days; even if she acknowledged that they’d probably moved beyond her mental image of caravans and horses, it still just didn’t _feel_ right) in understanding. “You got everything you need for the spell, right?”

“The translated and modified spell, the herbs, the candles, and even the Orb of Thesulah; all here,” Jenny confirmed, nodding at Paige as she patted her bag.

“The Orb of what?” Paige repeated, looking at the gypsy in confusion.

“A crystal orb that essentially serves to hold the soul during the transit between the afterlife and the return to the body; it’s a spirit vault for rituals involving the undead,” Jenny replied. “My clan and I have it all planned out; the spell had to be altered slightly to accommodate your power level, but otherwise it should work fine. Essentially, we position the orb in the centre of the sacred circle, light the candles, and then, having sprinkled the herbs, you recite the required spell; given your own natural power level, I’ve managed to trim the curse slightly to make it more compatible with your brand of magic while retaining the fundamental intent, but in the end the only way we’re going to know if it worked or not is if we actually _cast_ it.”

“The proof of the pudding is in the eating, huh?” Paige said, smiling slightly at the gypsy. “Well, guess we’ll just have to do what we can and hope for the best, huh?”

“Quite,” Jenny said, smiling gratefully back at the younger woman. “Thanks for… well, for trusting us; after what we did to your… well…”

“You _gave_ me Angel; how could I not be grateful for that?” Paige said, smiling reassuringly at the woman. “As I already told you, Angelus _isn’t_ Angel; he’s just what Angel becomes when everything that _makes_ him Angel gets taken out of his body. You guys did nothing to Angel except make him what he was before he lost his soul; all I’m asking is that you help me put that demon asshole back in his box and let Angel take his place.”

“And… you’re comfortable with us using this curse?” Jenny asked, looking pointedly at Paige. “These magics haven’t exactly been used by my people that often… We only even used this curse once in recorded history; there’s a possibility that it might not even do anything after the changes I’ve made…”

“You guys wrote this curse in the first place; even if things have changed a bit for you all since then, I’m prepared to trust that you know what you’re doing when you’re trying to rewrite it,” Paige replied, looking reassuringly at the other woman. “Just talk me through what you’ve got and we’ll make sure you’ve got everything you might need for it, OK? All I’m asking is that you _try_ ; if you succeed, you’ll have given a good man his life back.”

She didn’t bother adding that Jenny would also have given her her boyfriend back; while having Angel back with her would be brilliant, the main reason she was doing this (She kept telling herself) was so that a good man would have a chance to continue fighting for his redemption.

“All right,” Jenny said after a moment’s pause, nodding resolutely at the younger witch. “I’ll get everything out while we wait for your sisters; how long will they be, by the way?”

“Give it-” Paige began, before she was interrupted mid-sentence by the ringing of her mobile phone.

“Huh?” she said, reaching into her pocket to pull out the phone in question, glancing briefly at the called ID- it said ‘Piper’, but with a deranged FBI agent on her tail when she’d last checked she wasn’t about to take something like that at face value- before she raised the phone to her ear and pressed the ‘Accept Call’ button.

“ _Hey, Paige_ ,” the voice of her oldest living sister said on the other end of the line, which at least answered Paige’s uncertainty about whether her sisters were all right or Jackman had stolen their phones to try and find her. “ _How’s things going over there_?”

“Piper?” Paige said in surprise; she hadn’t expected her sisters to deal with their particular problems this quickly. “What about Serena? And Agent Jackman?”

“ _Safe and dead, in that order_ ,” Piper replied. “ _We got Serena out safely enough- those anti-magic amulets of Jackman’s were a bit of a pain, but nothing we couldn’t handle-, but… well, Cole kinda astral projected his way out of the Wasteland and… seriously, don’t ask me_ how _he did it, but he made Phoebe and Jackman switch places just after Jackman tried to shoot her_ -”

“And, lemme guess, the bullet hit _him_ instead of Phoebe, right?” Paige concluded, feeling a momentary satisfaction at the news that Jackman was dead- he might be human, but that didn’t mean he was any kind of ‘innocent’ after what he’d tried to do to her and her family- before her mind latched onto the more immediate fact of Piper’s statement. “Wait a minute, Cole’s _back_?”

“ _No, thankfully; from what we saw it looks like he just astral projected out of that ‘Wasteland’ place Phoebe told us about long enough to do the old switcheroo thing and then vanished back there afterwards_ ,” Piper replied. “ _Given that he didn’t stick around after saving Phoebe, I think it’s safe enough to say that Cole’s still out of our hair except on at least a short-term basis- we can work on figuring out a more permanent solution later- , which at least gives us a bit of time to see about the Angelus issue; how’s that working out, by the way_?”

“Well, Jenny and I have been talking, and she _thinks_ we can do the curse properly,” she said, exchanging one last confirming glance with the gypsy in question before she turned back to the conversation with her sister. “You guys just need to get over here, we’ll set everything up, and then…”

She shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant even as a hopeful smile crossed her face; she wasn’t going to think about the possibility that it wouldn’t work and run the risk of creating a negative atmosphere. “Angel’s back, the Vampire Society for Releasing Alcathla loses its president, and the world lives on while we… do what we want.”

As much as she might prefer to keep her magic, she wasn’t going to push her luck; her sisters were evidently willing to at least help her by _trying_ to cast this curse, and she’d just have to take everything else as it came.

“ _OK_ ,” Piper said finally. “ _We’ll get Leo and see about clearing away any witch-related evidence on us over here- Darryl also wants us to fill in an official board regarding what actually happened here-, and then we’ll join you and Jenny as soon as we can; see you soon_.”“Check,” Paige replied, nodding briefly before she remembered that Piper wouldn’t be able to see it. “See you soon.”

With that said, she terminated the call and looked back at Jenny. “OK, they’ll be here in a few minutes; let’s get started, shall we?”

* * *

  
A couple of hours later, as Paige and Jenny went over the requirements for the curse one last time- Paige couldn’t believe how much more complicated things were for Jenny’s branch of magic; even with the Power of Three added to the equation it needed a hell of a lot more herbs than any spell she’d done with Piper and Phoebe just to make sure the magic that they were calling upon was focused on its intended goal-, the faint sound that Paige had come to associate with orbing reached her ears, prompting her to turn around and smile as Leo, Piper and Phoebe appeared in front of her.

“Good to see you, guys,” she said, smiling over at her sisters before she assumed a more anxious expression. “Uh… what’s been done about the Jackman thing?”

“Well,” Piper said, smiling reassuringly at her youngest sister, “thanks to Selena’s testimony, we’ve managed to get ourselves cleared of any charges Jackman might have whipped up for us, even if they _are_ confused about how Jackman can have shot himself from twenty feet away.”

“What are they going to do about it, subpoena Cole?” Phoebe said, shaking her head dismissively at the idea.

“Darryl and I are pretty sure that the FBI won’t be too concerned about looking further into the matter, given that you stopped one of their own from killing again,” Leo put in, before he smiled slightly. “And as for Jackman’s files… well, I _kind_ of orbed them into a volcano.”

“A volcano?” Jenny repeated, looking in surprise at the Whitelighter. “Isn’t that a bit… well, overkill?”

Looking almost sheepishly in the direction of the gypsy, as though he and the other two had only just remembered that she was there, Leo shook his head.

“Uh… not really,” he said. “All I did was protect my charges, which is totally within my remit as a Whitelighter; so long as I don’t expose the existence of magic, I haven’t actually disobeyed any rules.”

“And once again, thanks for that,” Piper said, leaning in to kiss Leo briefly before she turned back to Jenny. “So, you think you can stick Angel’s soul back in his body?”

“Well, as I already explained to Paige, even with your power this kind of spell requires a loophole of _some_ kind,” Jenny said, looking slightly apologetically at the two newly-arrived sisters. “We can change the original curse so that Angel won’t lose his soul _every_ time he gets happy enough, but he needs to be consciously thinking about the clause when he… y’know…”

“Is in a position to lose it, right?” Piper asked, nodding quickly in understanding. “OK, gotcha; let’s just… _not_ go any further on that front, OK; I’d really rather _not_ have to think about my baby sister doing… _that_.”

“Well, if you want to talk about less personal disturbing matters, any news from the Elders on the Alcathla front yet?” Paige asked, looking inquiringly over at Leo. She wanted to ask about the Angel of Destiny situation, of course, but with Alcathla still an issue she felt sure that her sisters would have mentioned the Angel if they felt they had to; given the scale of the current crisis, she was guessing that the guy had probably been told to give them some time out until they’d dealt with the current situation and saved Angel. “I mean, is the guy active or is he still dozing away?”

“No, he’s still stone; the Elders remain confident that Angelus hasn’t figured out how to wake him up,” Leo replied. “If we move fast enough I’m hopeful that we can still re-curse Angelus before he can work out the ritual; he’s still not worked out what it means when it says that Alcathla can only be woken by one who’s ‘worthy’-”

“Just out of curiosity, what _does_ that mean?” Piper asking, looking curiously at Leo. “I mean, what would a demon like Alcathla actually _define_ as ‘worthy’?”

“I can’t say; the more people know the more likely Angelus might find out himself,” Leo said apologetically, before he looked over at Paige. “The point is, Angelus still hasn’t learned what he needs; if we move fast enough, we can still get Angel back before he has the chance to complete the ritual-”

“And what if we can’t do that?” Phoebe countered, looking critically between Leo and Paige. “What if Angelus has reached the same point that Cole reached? You know, the one where there’s no other option _but_ to kill him?”

Turning to look at her older sister, Paige stared pointedly at Phoebe for a few moments before she spoke.

“If that’s happened,” she said, looking resolutely at the seer, “ _I’ll_ be the one to decide; I know what Angelus is capable of better than anyone, and I’m the only one who’ll be able to know for sure that he’s reached the point where leaving him alive is the riskier option than just killing him.”

“And how can we be sure you’ll even be able to _make_ that kind of call?” Phoebe countered. “I had enough trouble just vanquishing Cole-”

“Angelus _isn’t_ Angel; Cole didn’t look like he’d changed that much apart from the powers thing-” Paige interjected.

“Moving on,” Piper cut in; she had no desire to see her sisters get into _this_ kind of argument when something like Alcathla was threatening the world, “is there any way we can know where Angelus is?”

“Not immediately, but the Elders say that he’s stopped trying to unleash Alcathla for the moment; there was a brief spurt of dimensional disruption when he apparently tried to free Alcathla earlier, but it didn’t work,” Leo said, shrugging slightly as he looked at the sisters. “On the topic of stopping Alcathla, they told me to give Paige something.”

Holding out his hand and looking upwards, the former WW2 medic simply stood in that pose as though he was waiting for something for a few moments, before a large, elaborate-looking sword appeared in his hands, equipped with a scabbard that appeared to be designed to be worn on the wielder’s back, which he subsequently handed over to Paige.

“It was blessed by the knight that first managed to kill Alcathla,” he said, as Paige removed the sword from the scabbard, studying the blade reflectively even as she slung the scabbard over her back. “If all else fails and Angelus manages to remove the sword that’s currently there, the Elders say that this should stop Alcathla before he can unleash the vortex.”

He paused uncertainly. “Well… they _think_ it will, anyway.”

“Really?” Paige said, only partly paying attention as she took the sword from her brother-in-law- she’d gathered that it could maybe be used to stop Alcathla in a worst-case-scenario, but the uncertainty about that factor just made it all the more imperative for her that they didn’t _get_ to the point where they’d have a worst-case-scenario- and gave it a couple of brief swipes through the air before she nodded in admiration. “ _Nice_ …”

“Uh… no offence, but is waving that thing around like that _really_ the smart thing to do?” Phoebe asked, looking slightly sceptically at the sword. “I mean, I get that you’ve had some hand-to-hand training from the vamp-guy’s better side, Paige, but I’m not exactly keen on you just… waving that thing around like that; did Angel really have the time to cover _sword-fighting_ during those lessons of yours…?”

“The Elders have already covered that,” Leo added, indicating the sword with a slight smile. “It’s been enchanted with a spell that, when wielded by anyone good, will grant them an instinctive knowledge of sword combat. It isn’t total, of course- the spell needs to build on the wielder’s pre-existing combat knowledge to work, and the user’s abilities will still be fundamentally amateur rather than the automatic motion that they’d be if Paige had learnt the knowledge from training-, but it should be enough to put her on at least a somewhat more even footing in a fight between her and Angelus.”

“Again, nice,” Paige said, putting the sword down on a nearby table before she looked around at the others. “OK, here’s the plan. I’m going to see if I can track down Angelus and keep him occupied while you guys work on that curse; personally speaking, I’d rather not find out what happens if we cast the curse while he’s _casting_ the ritual-”

“Hold on; can we get back to the bit where you’re going to ‘keep him occupied’?” Piper repeated, looking uncertainly at her sister. “Is that _really_ smart? I mean, sword with mystical fighting knowledge as part of the package aside, we _are_ talking about you going one-on-one with the two-hundred-and-fifty-year-old vampire with a serious mad-on for hurting you…”

“Exactly; even if I _do_ find him with others, he’s going to want to fight me _himself_ ,” Paige clarified as she looked at her sister. “Besides, you guys need to stay here and work on the curse; if you get the chance to try it, you need to do it as soon as possible.”

No sooner had she finished than a thought occurred to her and she looked anxiously over at Jenny. “Uh… do you need _all_ of us?”

“Well, all three would be good, but I should be able to manage to re-cast the curse with just two of you,” Jenny confirmed, nodding thoughtfully as she looked between the three sisters before her gaze settled on Paige. “If you _can_ get back in time, I’d appreciate it, but if you can’t…”

She shrugged. “Well, I think we can at least _try_ it, if nothing else.”

“Good enough for me,” Paige said, as she picked up the sword and slung it onto her back, shrugging a long coat on over it- she didn’t exactly want to attract attention by going around with a large sword on her back- before she turned to Phoebe. “You got a map I can use to scry for the guy?”


	30. The First Attempt

As she walked through the streets of San Francisco a couple of hours later, however, Paige was beginning to regret her decision to go out alone. She’d been so eager to try and track Angelus down before he could do anything that Angel would _really_ regret that she’d failed to really think much about the fact that he’d been using some kind of anti-scrying charm of some sort ever since he’d lost his soul; it was the main reason they hadn’t discovered him earlier. It didn’t stop the scrying from finding him, of course, but it made it harder to pinpoint exactly where he was; all it could do was give them the approximate area where he was at the time, rather than the specific house. She’d managed to track down a couple of vampires of course, as well as giving herself a bit of practice in the sword- she’d managed to decapitate the vampires easily enough, although she acknowledged that they hadn’t been using swords themselves and hadn’t been expecting her to use something like that against them-, but Angelus still hadn’t shown himself.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon…” she said, glaring at her surroundings as she kept one hand close to the sword on her back. “You’ve _got_ to be around here somewhere… will you just show yourself, you soulless bastard…”

“Aw, is there _really_ any call for that kind of language?” Angelus’s voice said from behind her, prompting Paige to spin around and see her boyfriend’s evil side casually leaning against the corner of a nearby alley, his arms folded and a satisfied smirk on his face. “I thought we were closer than _that_ ; why’d you have to insult me?”

“I’m _not_ close to you; you’re nothing but a soulless monster who happens to be wearing my boyfriend’s face,” Paige countered, glaring resolutely at Angelus as she raised her hands in a combat stance; she wasn’t going to give Angelus the satisfaction of seeing how much his appearance still had the power to affect her, even so many months after he had lost his soul.

“Y’know, I’m not sure what would hurt Angel more; the fact that you seem to like hitting him, or the fact that you’re not even really _trying_ to get him back,” Angelus chuckled, shaking his head slightly as he looked almost teasingly at her. “You ever wonder if you had some issues with _him_ that you’re trying to take out on _me_ now? You _do_ seem to be hitting me a lot…”

“I’m only hitting _you_ to stop you taking it out on anyone else; I _know_ what you are, and what you are is so far from being Angel it’s not even _remotely_ like him,” Paige stated coldly, clenching and unclenching her fists in preparation for the upcoming fight; she might have promised herself that she’d save the sword for Alcathla, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t do some damage without it.

“Think you can take me _this_ time?” Angelus smirked, unfolding his arms as he flexed his neck while continuing to glare at her. “Y’know, you’re the _one_ thing from this dimension I’m going to miss…”

“Yeah, yeah, beautiful moment we're having here,” Paige said, waving a hand dismissively as she continued to glare at the Scourge of Europe. “Can we please fight?”

“I didn't come here to fight,” Angelus countered, chuckling slightly as though the very concept of that suggestion amused him.

“No?” Paige asked, raising her eyebrows to make it clear that she strongly doubted her ‘ex’s’ honesty.

“Gosh,” Angelus continued, that same amused tone in his voice, “I was actually hoping we could get back together. What do you think? Do we have a shot?”

The glare from Paige that he received in response was all he needed for an answer. “Alright; we'll fight.”

As the rushed towards her, Paige didn’t even hesitate; even as the vampire hurried towards her, she launched the most powerful punch she could manage to his face, adjusting her blow mid-punch so that it struck her opponent in the chest as she saw his hand reach up to grab her wrist as it hurtled along its original path; Angelus might be faster, but she’d fought against Angel during her training often enough to at least have an idea of what Angelus was likely to do. Even though the blow to Angelus’s chest couldn’t actually _do_ anything to him due to his lack of a need for air, the force of the blow was enough to send the vampire off-balance long enough for Paige to follow it up with a quick kick to her opponent’s head that she’d picked up from recent lessons with Phoebe; given that she’d made Angelus her personal ‘project’ to vanquish, it had only been sensible to diversify her fighting skills beyond what Angel had taught her himself.

 _The only question_ , Paige thought to herself, as she ducked under a weak- by Angelus’s standards- retaliatory punch and leapt back slightly to put more distance between her and her opponent, _is if it’ll be enough; it’s not like I know everything_ Angel _can do, after all…_

All she could do is keep fighting until her sisters and Jenny had managed to cast the curse, and hope that it would be done sooner rather than later.

Right now… if it came down to a choice between killing Angelus or keeping the fight going for longer…

Paige honestly wasn’t entirely sure which one she’d choose.

* * *

  
“Seriously, how long does it _take_ to get everything together for this thing?” Piper asked, pacing up and down the apartment as Jenny continued to organise the herbs and lay things out on the floor before her. “Our spells _never_ take this long!”

“Well, you’re starting out with access to a pretty significant amount of power already; the practitioners of my clan need these herbs to render us more open to the forces we’re attempting to control when we’re casting a spell of this magnitude,” Jenny explained, as she glanced once again at the spell alongside her, complete with the ‘recipe’ for the herbs they needed. “I get that you possess more natural magical power than any of them have ever wielded, but there are still parts of this curse that call on outside forces in order to achieve the final goal. This spell is so old that there’s no way to be sure which parts of the ritual provide the caster with power and which invoke those spirits; the only way to be sure we get it right is to do everything and hope for the best.”

“Eh, what’s the worst that could happen with some extra power; we make Angel’s soul even _more_ permanent?” Piper pointed out, smiling slightly as she glanced between Jenny and Leo, before her smile fell as she looked at Leo. “That _is_ all that could happen, right; I don’t want to go sticking an extra soul in there by accident or something…”

“Don’t worry, that couldn’t happen; this spell’s focused exclusively on the soul of the vampire it’s being cast for,” the Whitelighter said, shaking his head reassuringly in clarification of the incorrectness of her theory; Jenny might have been the only person they had who actually practised this type of magic on a regular basis, but at the same time Leo was their resident expert on matters like this. “The magic itself could be a problem- channelling this kind of raw power through yourselves isn’t something you’ve done normally-, but the natural purity of your own powers should prevent any risk of magical contamination from a brief exposure like this, and-”

“Hold on; magical _contamination_?” Phoebe repeated, standing up to look incredulously at her brother-in-law. “What are you talking about? This is _magic_ we’re dealing with here, Leo, not _radiation_!”

“Not all magic is as beneficial as the type you’ve used to date,” Leo explained, as he turned to face his sister-in-law. “In some cases, certain types of magic- particularly the type you’re using here, where you initially call upon outside sources rather than tapping into your own natural magical power to provoke the change you’re trying to make- have been known to have an almost addictive effect on their user the more they’re accessed, to the extent that they start to resort to magic even when dealing with relatively simple problems. It’s part of the reason that the Elders enforce the rule against using magic for personal gain; it helps to limit your exposure to the spells and thus limits the possibility of you becoming addicted to it-”

“Back up a minute; the personal gain thing’s to stop us getting _addicted_ to _magic_?” Phoebe repeated, shuddering slightly as she looked at the cauldron before her. “I mean… well, how can that even _happen_? I’ve never _felt_ any differently from normal when I’m using magic; how can it have a _physical_ effect on me?”

“Well, ‘addicted’ might not be quite the right term; it’s not that people suffering from magical addiction have to deal with physical withdrawal symptoms if they stop using it for a certain amount of time, it’s just that they become so _used_ to using magic to help them out that they tend to resort to it even when it’s not necessary, eventually reaching a point where it’s like the magic controls _them_ rather than them controlling _it_ ,” Leo clarified, looking patiently over at Phoebe as Jenny continued to prepare the herbs, Piper kneeling down beside Jenny to help her. “Imagine becoming so used to being able to… well, find a lost weapon using a spell, for example, that you start using it to just find a specific shirt when you wake up in the morning even if it would only take a few seconds longer to look for it yourself. Eventually you reach a point where you’d become so used to being able to use magic to fix everything that you might even try and ‘cheat’ your way out of arguments; I heard of one witch of Jenny’s brand of magic who grew so used to using magic to solve her problems that she actually erased her girlfriend’s memory of an argument they’d had rather than try and sort it out the normal way…”

Even as the Whitelighter continued to speak, Phoebe almost wasn’t paying attention; her mind was focused almost completely on what she’d just been told.

Erasing somebody’s memory to stop them from learning about magic was one thing; it could at least be justified as protecting people from having to deal with stuff that they weren’t ready to know.

Tampering with the mind of somebody who loved you just because you didn’t like how things were in your relationship at the moment, because you’d grown so used to magic that you couldn’t stop using it to solve _every_ problem you found yourself confronted with…

How could the person you’d done that to _ever_ be sure that they were who they thought they were if they discovered you’d done that to them?

“Almost done,” Jenny said, breaking off Phoebe’s bleak train of thought as she turned around to look at the two remaining Charmed Ones. “If you’ll just sit down, we can get started.”

“ _Finally_ …” Piper groaned, flexing her wrists as she looked over at Jenny. “I really don’t think I could’ve kept that herb-spreading thing up much longer; my wrists are _killing_ me…”

Just as the two Halliwell sisters were taking up their positions to cast the curse, a powerful blow from the other side sent the door flying off its hinges and into the opposite wall, revealing a grinning dark-haired vampire on the other side of the door’s former location.

“Hello, my dear little sister,” Drusilla said as she walked into the apartment, grinning over at Phoebe as she spoke; her eyes briefly flicked over to look at where Jenny and Piper were sitting, as well as noting Leo as he stood in a corner of the room to limit the possibility of him unintentionally interfering with the spell, but subsequently settled back to look at Phoebe. “My friends and I are _very_ disappointed that we weren’t invited to your tea party.”

As she spoke, Phoebe anxiously noted the presence of two distinctive amulets draped around Drusilla’s neck; one of them was easily recognisable as one of the anti-magic amulets that Jackman had just used against them, which instantly ruled out the possibility of them using spells against the new attackers (Whether it would prevent them from casting the curse, Phoebe didn’t know, but since she doubted they’d have the opportunity to cast anything that complex with this bunch in the room that didn’t really matter). The other one looked vaguely like the anti-orbing amulet Spike had used against them when he’d initially attacked P3, but Phoebe wouldn’t like to swear to it; it _had_ been a while since that first battle…

“Eh, what can I say?” Phoebe countered, deciding to ignore the implications of that ‘sister’ comment- it was most likely just a reference to the fact that they could both see the future, even if her visions were apparently a bit clearer than Drusilla’s seemed to be- as she, Piper and Jenny got to their feet and assumed a combat stance. At any other time Phoebe would have been particularly concerned about what Jenny could actually bring to the fight- even if she knew about magic she was still technically an innocent in this situation-, but right now she was more focused on trying to ignore the other eight or so vampires that accompanied Angelus’s favoured childe; evidently Angelus’s old comment about not requiring an invitation. “We have a _thing_ about inviting homicidal maniacs with delusions to our parties; you tend to cramp our style when we’re trying to kick back.”

Even as she glared at Drusilla, a part of Phoebe couldn’t help but register that the insane vampires almost appeared… _sad_ at that last statement. She knew it was stupid, of course- Angel had told them more than once that the vampire was hopelessly insane and could sometimes barely be understood even by _Spike_ ; trying to work out what Drusilla was feeling at any point was pretty much an exercise in futility according to what Angel had told them-, but she still couldn’t shake the idea that the vampire was almost… hurt… at her rejection.

“That hurts me, little sister,” Drusilla said, holding a hand over her unbeating heart as she looked at Phoebe with a pained expression.

Then her eyes narrowed, flashing slightly with the golden light that Phoebe had long come to associate with vampires having a _really_ bad day and feeling extremely willing to take it out on somebody as soon as possible. “I don’t _like_ being hurt by my family.”

 _Oh,_ crap, Phoebe thought, as Drusilla charged towards her, grabbing her by the throat even as she noted Piper attempting to flick her hands in the familiar ‘freezing-time’ motion and nothing happened; evidently those amulets of Drusilla’s were just as good at their job as Jackman’s had been. This _isn’t good_.

Their best fighter in vampire-related matters- against any vampire other than Angelus, Angel’s training had _definitely_ paid off; Paige was a vamp-staking _machine_ these days- was conspicuous by her absence, they had no way of finding her _or_ letting her know they were in trouble, their magic was currently useless, one of their number- as far as they knew; Jenny hadn’t exactly told them that much about her life yet- had potentially _zero_ combat experience, and they hadn’t even managed to _try_ and cast the curse…

It was official; there were some days when it was really _not_ worth getting out of bed.

* * *

  
Even as Paige ducked under Angelus’s latest attack- this one a kick for a change; she’d noted that both Angel and Angelus tended to avoid lashing out with their legs unless they were trying to catch an opponent off-guard-, she was already thinking at least three steps ahead, trying to plan her next move in the fight as soon as possible.

In many ways, Angelus’s knowledge of her lessons with Angel had always been a double-edged weapon in this kind of confrontation; just as he knew all of Paige’s moves in a fight, Paige knew enough of his to be able to avoid the worst of his attacks. Admittedly, Angelus’s more brutal nature when compared to Angel’s still put her at a slightly greater disadvantage in this than the vampire was dealing with- Angel, for example, would have always tried to deal with his opponents in the quickest manner possible, while Angelus’s fondness for torture meant that he tended to go for blows that wounded rather than killed, wearing the target down for later-, but as Paige ducked under his latest punch she knew that she still had enough of an edge to get out of this latest mess intact.

“Getting a little sluggish in your old age?” she asked, trying to give the impression that she was less concerned about the fight than she was; given what Angel had mentioned about Angelus’s ego when dealing with his victims- he always had to make sure they _knew_ that he’d beaten them-, she strongly doubted he’d be out to kill her straight away, but that didn’t rule out the possibility that he’d _really_ cause some pain before she finally died. “Seriously, you’re just _not_ having much luck here, are you?”

Just as she launched her next punch, Angelus, moving at a speed that surpassed anything she’d seen from him before as _either_ of his identities, grabbed her arm and hurled her over his shoulder, causing her to land on his back, gasping for air as she stared up at the stars above.For a moment, as she desperately gasped for oxygen, she almost found the view above her… soothing.

Then the face of the vampire known to many as the Scourge of Europe for over a century appeared in between her and the stars, a casual smirk on his face, and her mind was brought back to the matter at hand.

“You _never_ learn, do you?” Angelus asked, chuckling slightly as he looked at her. “You just keep thinking that all my attempts to get to the Charmed Ones have to be all about _you_ ; does it _ever_ occur to you that I might want something a bit less… tangible, shall we say… than a good fight? When I’m going into something this… big, for lack of a better term… wouldn’t it make more sense to take out _more_ of the competition than just you?”

Paige’s blood ran cold at the implications of Angelus’s statement.

_He was after Piper and Phoebe…_

“NO!” she yelled in horror, hurriedly getting back to her feet and shoving Angelus off to the side- he didn’t even try to stop her; the grin on his face made it clear that he was enjoying her reaction too much for that-, automatically closing her eyes and orbing towards his better half’s old apartment, the vampire’s mocking laughter still strong in her ears as she vanished from that part of the city…

* * *

  
Only to find herself reappearing at least a block or so away from her destination, sprawled on the ground and with a slight headache; reaching up to touch the sore part, she quickly confirmed that it was the result of a bruise rather than anything else.

 _Great; anti-orbing amulets_ , she groaned, as she got to her feet. After any attempt to find Angelus by sensing him- Leo had theorised that Paige would still be able to find Angelus that way as a part of him was still Angel, and hence ‘attuned’ to Paige-, her sisters had quickly deduced that Angelus was using more of the anti-orbing amulets that Spike had used during his initial assault on P3. Apparently, the anti-orbing amulets not only stopped anyone from orbing out of the location where they were being used, but they simultaneously prevented her from finding anyone currently being protected by them, while also actually ‘blocking’ her if she attempted to orb to his current location, even if she was only going there by chance…

Shaking her head to force her mind back on-track- she must have been left slightly dazed by the knock she’d just taken; Angel had always told her to _never_ allow herself to get distracted when she was dealing with a situation that she _knew_ to be dangerous-, Paige got back to her feet and began to run towards the apartment building, her fingers crossed slightly as she prayed that she’d be in time to stop… _whatever_ Angelus had planned…

Even as she charged up the stairs, hoping that she’d make it, she knew that she was already too late; judging by how quiet it was up there, her sisters, Leo and Jenny had either left the room already, were lying around unconscious, or they were-

 _NO_! Paige berated herself; she refused to even _think_ of that as being a possibility. _They’ll be fine… they’re the_ Charmed Ones _… they can handle some stupid vampires…_

She just wished that she could ignore the part of her that kept reminding her that _she_ was their resident ‘vampire ass-kicking’ expert; take her and their powers out of the equation and, even with Phoebe’s own more long-term hand-to-hand training to take into account, the rest of her family might _definitely_ be in trouble…

As she charged into the room that had once been Angel’s apartment, she froze in the middle of the doorway, feeling like her blood had frozen as she stared at the sight before her. The herbs that Jenny had brought to use for the curse lay scattered around the room, the candles and other artefacts that she’d been preparing to use were equally spread out around the floor, and, worst of all, Piper and Jenny were spread out amongst the items in question, Piper’s arm twisted at an odd angle while blood trickled from a nasty-looking cut on Jenny’s head. She couldn’t see Leo and Phoebe at the moment, but that thought barely even registered with her right now; all that mattered was that one of her sisters was injured and the other one was missing.

She _had_ to do _something_ …

Almost instinctively- she didn’t do this that often, but she supposed her Whitelighter nature had probably taken control in a moment like this-, she turned to hold her hands over Piper’s arm, closing her eyes as she tried to concentrate her powers on the injury, desperately wishing that she could summon her healing power to help Piper recover from this injury like she’d helped to bring Leo back from the brink when he was nearly killed by the Source during that incident with the Hollow…

But she couldn’t.

Whether it was because the last time had been in a more relaxed situation- when she’d actually tried to heal Leo then the initial crisis had been over and all she’d needed to focus on was making sure _he_ was all right-, because things now were just so much _more_ of a mess than they’d been back then, or maybe even because Leo’s Whitelighter status had ‘augmented’ her abilities at the time without her knowing it…

None of her theories changed the facts; right now she was alone in an abandoned apartment, one sister and one new friend potentially fatally injured, with no way to heal their injuries and no idea where her other sister and brother-in-law were currently located…

All because she’d allowed her ego to consume her and make her think that _she_ was the only thing Angelus could be after if he wanted to take on her new family.

She couldn’t handle this on her own; right now, she needed help from the one man who could be _guaranteed_ to get the others the help they needed. Pulling out her cellphone- and trying not to think too much about how shaky her hands were at the moment-, Paige quickly dialled Darryl’s number, fighting to hold her composure until the other end of the connection was finally picked up.

“ _Paige_?” Darryl’s voice said from the other end of the line, evidently anxious about her reasons for calling him. “ _What’s wrong; is it Jackman_?”

“Darryl…” Paige said, determined to keep it together at least long enough to let him know why she’d called him in the first place. “Get an ambulance over to Angel’s apartment… there’s been an attack… Piper and Jenny need _help_ …”

She didn’t even wait to hear Darryl’s reply; as soon as she’d conveyed the message, she terminated the phone call and turned to crouch down beside her one remaining sister (Her one remaining sister _present_ ; she would look for Phoebe as soon as she’d managed to get herself under control emotionally and was sure that Piper was all right), hoping that the ambulance services would arrive sooner rather than later.

She had done all that she could do right now…

 _And it wasn’t enough_.

When her sisters needed her to be the best vampire-ass-kicking witch/whitelighter hybrid she could be…

She’d blown it.

She’d failed them.

Worse…She’d failed the man who’d loved her so much that their first time… _together_ … had made him perfectly happy for the first time in over a century.

Almost unconcerned about the possibility of one of Angelus’s vampires coming back- although she doubted that they’d bother; he wouldn’t want her dead unless he was the one doing it himself-, Paige crouched down on the floor and began to sob.


	31. Searching for Angels

As she stood anxiously in the hospital waiting room, her fingers crossed as she waited for somebody to let her know what had happened to her sisters, Paige wished that she had a better idea of what she was actually going to do now.

Until Leo showed up from wherever he was- he and Phoebe were still missing, but Paige hadn’t been able to go off and look for them unless she knew that at least _one_ of her sisters was going to be all right-, she was apparently going to have to go up against Angelus and his minions on her own. After all, she had no way of knowing what kind of condition Phoebe would be in when she finally turned up, and Piper almost certainly wouldn’t be in any shape to do anything too active, given the injuries she’d apparently sustained in the initial attack; Paige was just grateful that the vampires apparently hadn’t been interested in feeding from anybody this time around.

“Paige?” a voice said from off to the side, prompting Paige to glance up as she saw Darryl walking into the waiting room, looking anxiously at her. “You OK?”

“Oh yeah, one of my sisters and someone who wouldn’t even _be_ here if it wasn’t for us asking her for help are in the hospital, my other sister and my brother-in-law are missing, and the demon wearing my boyfriend’s face is about to suck the world into Hell unless I find him first; I’m just _peachy_ , thanks!” Paige said, leaning over to clasp her head in her hands as she fought to stop herself from breaking down in tears.

“Paige…” Darryl hissed, sitting down beside her to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “This isn’t your fault; you couldn’t have _known_ -”

“Like that excuses _anything_ ; Phoebe’s arm’s broken, Jenny’s in a _coma_ , and Piper and Leo are both still missing!” Paige countered, glaring back at the cop in frustration. She knew that it wasn’t fair on Darryyl to take the blame for this- he’d really been a great help, helping them to come up with a cover story to account for their presence in Angel’s flat (As far as the police knew, Paige’s boyfriend had been meant to be coming back from a ‘business trip’ tonight and some gang had attacked her family and Angel’s ‘cousin’ while Paige was out trying to find something to give him as a welcome-home present)-, but right now she just needed _something_ to yell at or she felt that she was going to go nuts.

“Paige?” a voice suddenly said from the hospital entrance.

“ _Piper_?” Paige yelled, looking up with a renewed expression of relief at the sight of her eldest sister standing in the hospital entrance. “You’re OK!”

“Yeah… had to run for I don’t know _how_ long before I realised that nobody was following me, but I made it,” Piper replied, nodding slightly shakily at her sister before she looked over at Darryl. “How’s… well…?”

“Phoebe and… Jenny, right?” Darryl replied, shaking his head slightly at the suddenly hopeful expression on Piper’s face. “It’s not looking great; Phoebe’s just sleeping at the moment- she had to have a few painkillers while the hospital set her arm-, but Jenny…”

He shook his head grimly. “She sustained some potentially serious head trauma; the doctors told me to tell you that she can wake up at any time, but…

“The longer it lasts the less likely it is, huh?” Piper asked, shaking her head slightly as she smiled in a slightly thankful manner at him “Thanks for trying, anyway; I… I appreciate it.”

“God… I _never_ should have asked her to come here…” Paige groaned, staring dejectedly at the ground as she slumped back into her seat. “Angelus must have known…”

“It’s hardly your _fault_ for wanting your boyfriend back; how were we to know he’d try something like _this_?” Piper pointed out, as she sat down beside her sister. “Anyway, at least you actually _tried_ something; when I realised my powers weren’t working, I just…”

“Hey; _don’t_ blame yourself for running away,” Paige countered, raising her head slightly to glare at Piper, her own self-recrimination forgotten. “You didn’t have any magic available to you and you tend to rely on your powers since they’re normally enough in a combat situation; running was all you _could_ do in a situation like that. You couldn’t have done anything else; it’s just… one of those things.”

After a moment’s reflective silence, Piper nodded.

“Thanks,” she said, smiling slightly at her younger sister.“You’re welcome,” Paige replied simply.

She just wished that she could convince herself that there was nothing _she_ could have done as easily as she’d apparently managed to convince Piper; even if she’d have needed to actually _be_ at the scene in order to have made a different…

“Hey…” Piper said after a brief silence, looking uncertainly around the hospital room before she turned to look at Paige. “Where’s Leo?”

Paige’s blood ran cold.

She’d been so busy focusing on her joy at having Piper back that she’d failed to register the fact that Leo still hadn’t shown up from… wherever he’d gone after breaking through those anti-orbing amulets that Drusilla had set up.

But if he wasn’t _here_ …

 _Shit_ … Paige thought to herself, as the implications of this latest turn of events hit her

There was only _one_ reason why their Whitelighter and brother-in-law wouldn’t be here right now to help them cope with the aftermath of such a violent attack…

Angelus had managed to capture Leo.

In other words, with Angelus’s anti-orbing amulets and other assorted charms rendering it at the very least difficult and at the most practically impossible to find his current base, the vampire now had full, unrestricted access to the only person around who knew how he could awaken Alcathla.

She had no idea where he was keeping the demon in question and even less of an idea how she was going to find him before he managed to convince Leo to tell him what to do; who knew _what_ kind of torture methods Angelus might resort to (And he _would_ have something that could work on Leo, Paige was sure of it; Angelus wouldn’t do something that drastic unless he was certain that it was going to work).

It was official; she _really_ hated her new witch-related responsibilities sometimes…

* * *

  
As Leo blinked his eyes weakly open, he winced slightly as he felt a sharp pain in his left arm; it felt like somebody had just been hitting him with a very fast hammer, doing just enough

“Ugh…” he groaned, wincing slightly as he glanced at his surroundings; he seemed to be in a large room of some kind, cobwebs and ruined furniture lying scattered around him in a manner that suggested whoever had once been here had left in a hurry. The starkness of the grey stonework around him suggested that this house hadn’t seen any inhabitants for a while, but beyond that he really couldn’t come up with any kind of clue about where he was right now…

“Hi, Leo!” a familiar voice said from off to the side, prompting the Whitelighter to turn his head slightly, only to wish he hadn’t bothered as he saw Angelus casually leaning against a nearby wall, his arms folded and that traditional arrogant smirk on his face as he looked at him. “I wasn't sure you were going to wake up; you _really_ had me worried.”

“Not worried enough… to ditch the amulets?” Leo pointed out, indicating the anti-orbing amulet that was just visible around Angelus’s neck; not only did the amulets stop Leo from orbing, they also had this annoying habit of repressing most of his other natural Whitelighter abilities, including his own accelerated ability to heal his own injuries; it might not leave him invulnerable, but he would have been awake quicker if the amulet wasn’t there. “What do you want?”

“Oh, I just want to torture you,” Angelus replied, shrugging as though he’d just said that he wanted to have Leo come around for a beer. “I used to love it, and it's been a _long_ time. I mean, the last time I tortured somebody, they didn't even _have_ chainsaws.”

As he strolled past Leo’s chair, the Whitelighter was barely able to contain a brief gasp of shock as he took in what was currently positioned in front of him; the large stone form of the horned demon that could only be Alcathla, glaring out at the world in permanently-frozen defiance at the knight who had slain him, the sword in his chest the only thing preventing that hell from being unleashed upon the world…

Leo wasn’t ashamed to admit that he shuddered at the sight of the powerful demon before him.

“Oh, yeah. Acathla,” Angelus said, as though he’d only just remembered that the demon was there, walking over to pat the figure briefly on one shoulder. “He's an even harder guy to wake up than you are. I mean, I performed the rituals, said all the right phrases... blood on my hand…”

He shrugged in frustration as he studied his right hand; now that Leo looked, he could see the faint traces of blood on the hand.

“Got nothing,” the vampire continued. Big doughnut hole for my troubles.”

A slight smile on his face, Angelus walked casually towards the bound Whitelighter, the anti-orbing amulet around his neck preventing Leo from doing more than wincing as the notorious killer drew ever closer to him.

“I figure you know the ritual,” Angelus continued as he approached his prisoner. “Your bosses, after all, _would_ want to keep you up-to-date on these things, even if it was only to make sure you knew what _not_ to let me do.”

With that, Angelus placed a hand on Leo’s shoulder, leaning forward slightly to look the other man directly in the eyes, an almost solemn expression on his face as he studied him. “Honestly, thought, I sorta hope you don't...”

He stepped back once again, the trademark malicious smirk on his face as he looked down at the man who had once considered his ensoulled half a friend. “'Cause I _really_ want to torture you.”

* * *

  
An hour after the meeting with Darryl and Piper in the hospital Paige was sitting alone in the mansion, her fists tightly clenched as she stared in frustration at the map of the city she’d spread out in front of her, wishing that she could just come up with a better plan than ‘scry and hope he’s being careless’. With Phoebe still weak from her injuries and Jenny unconscious, Paige had insisted that Piper remain in the hospital with them to act as protection while she went to look for Angelus and Leo. In the event of Angelus deciding to send any minions to the hospital to finish what they’d started earlier, Piper had the best chance of stopping them if they just came as themselves, and in the event of them bringing anti-magic amulets Paige’s Whitelighter senses would be triggered the moment she…

Well, the moment she _couldn’t_ sense Piper, really; given that she doubted Angelus would want _any_ of them to die of a long-range attack- he was a very ‘hands-on’ kind of killer, she’d noticed from their past encounters and learned from what few stories Angel had told her of that time-, Piper vanishing could only mean that she was trapped behind the influence of an anti-magic amulet rather than being dead, which should give Paige enough time to reach her sister if things turned ugly again.

She was just grateful she’d practised with her Whitelighter senses with Angel once or twice; without his help, she’d probably still be focusing more on orbing things about when it came to using her powers, rather than the sensing and the healing that she’d been working on ever since he revealed his vampire side to her.

If only those senses were a _bit_ more use in helping her find Angelus _now_ …

“ _God_ …” she groaned, leaning back in her seat as she stared up at the ceiling. “Can’t things be _easy_ for once…?”

“Eh, you know what they say,” an unfamiliar voice- Paige could swear that the speaker had a somewhat Texan accent about it- suddenly said from off to the side. “If it was easy to be the hero, _everyone’d_ be doing it.”

Looking sharply up in the direction of the speaker- the only consolation was that it couldn’t be any of Angelus’s men; nobody else was here to invite them in while she was occupied here-, Paige saw a man of indeterminate age standing in the main hall of the mansion, dressed in a brown jacket and trousers that clashed horribly with the vivid green-and-black patterned shirt he wore underneath, the ensemble topped off by the brown wide-brimmed hat he wore on his head.

“Who are you?” she asked, standing up and glaring at the man before her, subtly shifting into an attack stance as she looked at him; if he tried anything, she didn’t want to make it obvious that she was ready for whatever he could throw at them.

“Whistler,” the man replied simply.

Paige blinked.

“Wait a minute…” she said, pausing uncertainly as she tried to recall an old memory before she looked at Whistler with a renewed intensity. “ _The_ Whistler? The guy who took Angel to see me in the first place? What the hell are _you_ doing here?”

“Oh, he mentioned me to ya, huh?” Whistler asked, smiling slightly at her.

“Once; I asked him how he knew I’d need help and he told me about you,” Paige said dismissively before she continued to glare at him. “Now, I’ll say it again; What. Are. You. Doing. Here?”

“I'm waiting for you,” Whistler replied simply.“Why?” Paige countered, her arms folded as she glared at him.

“Would you believe I need a date to the prom?” Whistler replied, a slight smile on his face.

Paige couldn’t believe it; her sisters were in hospital, her brother-in-law was missing, a new friend was in a coma because of her, and this guy wanted to _joke_?

She didn’t even give him the luxury of personal space; walking directly towards the… whatever kind of demon this guy was…, Paige grabbed his shoulders and threw him against the wall, subsequently glaring at him as he looked back at her with a slightly dazed expression; evidently increased strength wasn’t part of whatever demonic package he had going for him.

“I have had a _really_ bad day, okay?” she said, glaring at the figure before her. “If you’ve got something worth telling me, then I’d appreciate hearing it soon; if you’re just here to make jokes, I might _just_ be tempted to forget that I’m meant to be the good guy here and orb your ribcage out of her chest and make you wear it as a _hat_! Got me?”

“Hello to the imagery!” Whistler replied, shaking his head slightly as he reached up to straighten his hat. “ _Very_ nice!”

As he stepped away from the wall, his expression became more serious as he looked grimly at her. “It wasn't supposed to go down like this. Nobody saw this… _thing_ with you and Angel coming, really; personally, I figured this for Angel's big day, but I thought he was here to _stop_ Acathla, not to bring him forth. Then you two made with the smoochies...”

He shook his head slightly. “Now he's a creep again-”

“ _Angelus_ is the creep; _Angel_ hasn’t been here since… y’know…” Paige interjected, wishing she could sound more assertive at that last statement; why did she _always_ get embarrassed when talking about her night with Angel?

“Good view of the situation,” Whistler said, nodding briefly at her. “Now the only question is, what are you prepared to do to stop him?”

“Whatever I have to,” Paige replied simply.

She wasn’t sure if she should be scared at how easy it was to say those four words; as much as she wanted Angel back, if it came down to a choice between killing Angelus or letting him awaken Alcathla, she would _have_ to kill Angelus.

No matter how much she wanted Angelu back, he would _never_ accept her if she’d risked the world because she thought she _might_ get him back.

“Maybe I should ask, what are you prepared to give up?” Whistler amended, a slightly quizzical look on his face as he folded his arms and looked back at Paige.

For a moment, the young half-Whitelighter simply stared back at him, before she let out a deep sigh of frustration.

“You don't have anything useful to tell me, do you?” she asked, raising a critical eyebrow as she glared at the man before her. “What are you, just some immortal demon sent down to even the score between good and evil?”

“Wow,” Whistler said, in a tone that actually sounded impressed with her last frustrated statement. “Good guess.”

“Well then,” Paige said, glaring at Whistler as she stepped forward so that she was staring him directly in the face, “why don't _you_ try getting off your immortal ass and fighting evil once in a while? 'Cause I’ve gotta tell you, I might not _want_ to give it up, but I wouldn’t mind it if my sisters and I had a little _help_ doing it now and again!”

“In the end, you're always by yourself,” Whistler replied simply. “Even with your sisters to help you, in the end, you're all you've got. That's the point.”

“ _Spare_ me the demonic self-help lecture…” Paige groaned as she turned around and walked towards the door; Whistler might strike her as a pain in the neck, but she could at least be fairly sure that he wasn’t going to start trashing everything if she left him alone.

Besides, right now she had bigger fish to fry; she had to figure out where the _hell_ Angelus was, get the sword that Leo had given her- she was hardly going to go walking around the city with a sword at her side unless she _knew_ where she was going, after all- and then she was going to kick that bastard’s ass all the way to Hell before he could even turn the metaphorical key to the place.

“The sword isn’t enough,” Whistler called after her as she opened the mansion door. “You gotta be ready; you gotta know how to use it!”

Paige didn’t even bother to reply as she slammed the door behind her; she had bigger problems to worry about then her swordsmanship right now.

* * *

  
After she’d been walking for the better part of an hour without any sign of Angelus, however, Paige was rapidly beginning to become desperate.

 _God, what was I_ thinking? She groaned to herself, as she walked past yet another of San Francisco’s seemingly numerous empty or nigh-on-ignored buildings with no sign yet of Angelus. _We’ve been looking for him for_ months _; is the guy_ really _going to get sloppy_ now _just because he’s got something big to deal with_?

She knew that it wasn’t exactly fair on anyone, but she couldn’t help it if this whole situation just got on her nerves; just _once_ she’d like to have a bit of luck when she was looking for something this dangerous on her own!

It was only when she turned around the corner and found herself facing one of the three vampires she was looking for right now that she remembered the old axiom of being careful what she wished for.

“Hello, cutie,” Spike said, a nonchalant smile on his face as he stood casually in front of her.

Paige didn’t even hesitate; as soon as Spike had taken even a brief step forward, she punched him in the face.


	32. Deal with a Vampire

“ _Hey_!” Spike yelled, holding his now-bleeding nose with one hand as he stared incredulously back at Paige. “That wasn’t _necessary_!”

Reaching out, Spike grabbed Paige’s shoulders, only to be met with a rapid knee to the gut that sent him staggering back (Paige had little doubt that it was due to the surprise of the attack rather than the actual force- training couldn’t compensate for the fact that she would never be as strong as a vampire, even if training with the much-stronger Angel at least gave her a better idea where to hit -, but an advantage was an advantage), only for him to shove her backwards in response.

“Hey!” Spike yelled, waving his hands desperately in front of himself as she reached into her pocket to pull out the stake that had become part of her normal clothing ever since she’d learned what Angel was. “White flag here! I quit!”

“Let me clear this up for you,” Paige said, taking a step forward to glare at Spike as she raised her stake slightly. “We're mortal enemies; we don't get _time-outs_!”

“You want to go a round, pet, I'll have a gay old time of it,” Spike said, casually folding his arms as he looked at her. “You want to stop Angelus... we're gonna have to play this a bit differently.”

Paige blinked.

On the list of things she’d expected somebody on Angelus’s side to say to her, someone talking to her about wanting to _stop_ him ranked particularly close to the bottom (The other options featured such things as one of his minions offering to buy her flowers or something like that; at least she hadn’t _totally_ descended into Bizarro-world without knowing it).

“What are you talking about?” she asked, keeping the stake raised as she glared at the vampire; the second Spike looked like he was going to make a move, he’d have the stake orbed into his heart before he knew what was happening to him.

“I'm talking about your ex, pet,” Spike said. “I’m-”

“ _Angelus_ isn’t my ex; I only ever dated _Angel_ ,” Paige interjected, glaring pointedly at Spike as she tightened her grip on the stake. “You even _think_ about comparing Angel to that… _thing_ … and I’ll be sure to cut off _you-know-what_ and let you walk away from the fight.”

Despite himself, Spike winced at the mental image; the young woman before him might not be a killer by nature- one of her main powers was to _heal_ , for God’s sake!-, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t do what she’d threatened.

He wondered if that was why Angelus was so fixated on her; when she wanted to be, in her own way, she was as dark as him.

“Look,” he said after a moment’s pause to get the unpleasant mental image Paige had created out of his head, looking pointedly at the young woman before him, “whatever you want to think of the guy as, I'm talking about putting him in the bloody _ground_.”

Paige couldn’t stop a small chuckle from escaping her lips at that statement.

“This has got to be the _lamest_ trick you guys have _ever_ tried to pull,” she said, lowering her stake slightly as she looked at Spike (If he wanted to try anything she could still get it up easily enough).

“He's got your Whitelighter,” Spike said, as he looked pointedly at the young witch before him. “Right now, he's probably torturing him.”

Paige tried not to show how anxious she was at that last statement; even if she’d already suspected that Leo had been captured by Angelus, hearing Spike actually _confirm_ that he was the vampire’s prisoner was another matter.

“What do you want?” she asked finally, glaring pointedly at Spike; she had little doubt that the vampire had some ulterior agenda in telling her this.

“I told you,” Spike replied casually. “I want to stop Angelus.”

He chuckled slightly. “I want to save the world.”

Paige blinked.

Had the world suddenly decided to go mad on her?

“O-kaaaaay…” she said, staring uncertainly at Spike. “You _do_ remember that you're a vampire, right? Last time I checked, you guys tend to make a habit of _killing_ people, not _saving_ them…”

“We vamps like to talk big sometimes, not denying that,” Spike replied, shaking his head as he indicated himself. “In the end, though, all that ‘I’m going to destroy the world’ talk? Pretty much just something tough to say when you’re strutting around with your friends over a pint of blood.

“Truth is,” Spike said, as he casually leant against a nearby wall as he looked at Paige with a slight smile while pulling a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it, “I like this world. You've got... dog racing, Manchester United… and the _people_ …”

He took a deep drag from the cigarette, a wistful expression on his face as he looked up at the sky before he removed the cigarette and exhaled the smoke. “Billions of people walking around like Happy Meals with legs… It's all right here.”

Paige tried to stop herself from shuddering at that particular description of the rest of the human race as ‘Happy Meals’; Spike’s description of people as something like _that_ did little to comfort her, as far as she was concerned.

“But then,” Spike continued, taking another drag from the cigarette before he continued, “someone comes along with a vision. With a real…”

As he exhaled the smoke again, he waved his hand thoughtfully for a moment, evidently seeking the right term, before he concluded his statement with, “…passion for destruction.”

With that said, he flicked the cigarette off to the side and looked over at Paige. “Angelus could pull it off. Goodbye Picadilly, farewell Leicester Bloody Square; you know what I'm saying?”

“Okay…” Paige said, nodding slightly as she looked critically at the vampire. “I get why you’d want to stop Angelus- assuming this isn’t part of some freaky scam, of course-, but why would you come to _me_ to pull it off?”

“I want Dru back,” Spike said, looking up at the sky as he spoke. “I want it like it was before _he_ came back. The way she acts around him...”

Paige couldn’t believe it; the world was about to end, and what drove Spike to come and try to form an alliance with someone he’d tried to kill in the past was the fact that his girlfriend had gone back to Angelus?

“You're pathetic,” she informed him coldly.

Spike instantly lashed out to punch her in the face; it was only thanks to Paige’s constant training with Angel that she was able to duck to one side to avoid the blow, following it up with a punch to Spike’s face that at least managed to actually make contact with the vampire’s face.

“I nearly lost my _sisters_ tonight!” she yelled angrily at Spike.

“I wasn't in on that raiding party-” Spike began.

“And I could _still_ lose them!” Paige continued, continuing to glare in rage at Spike. “The whole world could be sucked into Hell any minute now, and you want my help because your girlfriend decided to go back to her ex? Well, let me take this opportunity to _not_ care; you’re both _psychos_ , remember!”

“I can't fight them both alone, and neither can you!” Spike retorted back.

For a moment, Paige simply silently glared back at Spike before she spoke again.

“I hate you,” she coldly informed him.

“Never thought otherwise,” Spike replied casually. “‘Course, with your sisters in hospital for various reasons right now, last time I checked I'm pretty much all you've got if you want to win this next round.”

If it wasn’t for the fact that he was right about that, the smug look of self-satisfaction on Spike’s face would have made Paige want to punch him again.As it was, he made a valid point; on her own, even with her combat training and her power, she was still one normal woman going into a fight against an unknown number of vampires, and that was if she even managed to _find_ Angelus’s headquarters in time.

“All _right_ …” she groaned, shaking her head as she glared back at Spike. “Look, I’ve got a phone call to make; you’d better just come with me to Angel’s old apartment until I can let my sisters know what I’m up to.”

“Even-” Spike began.

“ _Excluding_ the fact that I’m doing it with you, obviously; they’ve got enough to deal with without knowing I’m working with _you_ of all people,” Paige countered, glaring at her new ‘ally’ as she walked. “Clear?”

“Crystal,” Spike replied with a slight smile.

* * *

  
As soon as she’d reached Angel’s old apartment- she freely acknowledged that it was far from being a secure location, but given that the day she invited _Spike_ into the manor would be the day she _slept_ with him (That hair just looked _ridiculous_ , to say nothing of his stupid accent; she didn't think of herself as shallow, but the vampire just looked too ridiculous for her to _ever_ find him appealing) it was the only choice, even if it had meant a bit of a walk due to Spike's reluctance to be orbed anywhere-, Paige had pulled out her phone and called Piper, Spike casually slumped in a chair looking reflectively around the room.

“ _Paige_?” Piper asked as she picked up the phone. “ _Everything OK_?”

“Been better, but it’s been a lot worse too; I’ll survive,” Paige replied briefly. “How’s things going at that end?”

“ _Well_ ,” Piper replied, evidently wishing that she had better news for her sister, “ _on the bright side, Jenny’s regained consciousness; she’s just… well, she’s still a_ little _woozy right now, but she’ll get there in a little bit_ …”

“In other words, she’s not really likely to be in any kind of position to try the curse again?” Paige said, shaking her head slightly as she tried to stop herself from punching something in frustration; after all the time she'd spent waiting for the chance to get Angel back, her best bet at pulling it off gets knocked out at the last minute...

“ _Not really_ ,” Piper said apologetically. “ _There's just no way to be_ sure _she'll get the curse right in this state..._ "

“No worries,” Paige said grimly, fighting to stop herself from starting to cry at the thought of what she was about to say. “It just makes it easier.”

She wished there was a way to get Angel back, of course, but at least now that she knew she wasn’t going to have that opportunity, it meant that she could _really_ ‘let rip’ when she confronted him at last.

“ _Uh… any luck finding Leo_?” Piper asked, evidently wanting to avoid putting Paige in a position where she would have to talk too much about Angel (Much to Paige’s relief; she felt that if she thought too much about Angelus she ran the risk of loosing the resolve she’d need to finish him).

“Yep,” Paige replied, nodding briefly as she looked grimly at Spike. “I got… well, let’s just say I got a lucky break.”

“ _What_?” Piper asked curiously.

“You wouldn't believe me if I told you,” Paige said simply. “All you need to know is that I’m going to his base tomorrow morning; I’ve got it all covered, so don’t worry about me in terms of back-up, OK?”

“ _You’re sure_?” Piper asked, clearly reluctant to send her youngest sister into a vampire’s lair on her own. “ _Darryl and I could probably be there_ -”

“Darryl’s not had any practice fighting vampires and you’re needed there in case Angelus tries to take out Phoebe or Jenny; you’re both fine where you are,” Paige interjected. “Trust me, I have a plan, and I can orb; I’ve got everything under control.”

After a moment’s silence, Piper spoke again.

“ _Do you… do you think Leo’s still alive_?” she asked.

“I’m pretty sure of it,” Paige confirmed; whatever else she felt about Spike, he had no reason to lie about the Whitelighter’s continued existence given that it was the only reason she might be prepared to let him walk after this. “Don’t worry; I’ll make sure he’s OK when I get in there.”

“ _Be careful_ ,” Piper said simply.

“Always am,” Paige replied, before she terminated the call and looked over at Spike, who was currently casually sipping at a pint of blood that had been left in Angel’s fridge; Paige had never bothered to clear the place out in case Angel still wanted it when he came back- which she acknowledged now would be never-, so there had still been some blood in the fridge even if it wasn’t as fresh as it might have been.

“God… how did the poof _live_ on this stuff?” Spike muttered, staring in disgust at the cool bag of blood in his hands before he looked back at Paige. “I mean, this is just-”

“ _Don’t_ want to know, OK?” Paige interjected, raising her hand as she glared at Spike. “My sisters are fine, so I’d just like to make sure we’re on the same page here; what are the _exact_ terms of this ‘deal’ you’re offering me?”

“Simple,” Spike replied, as he tossed the bag off to the side. “You let me and Dru skip town, I help you kill Angelus.”

For a moment, Paige felt like contradicting him; after what Drusilla’s group had nearly done to her sisters, she was in _no_ mood to see that… _bitch_ … walk away alive…

But, if she wanted Spike’s help on this, it was pretty obvious that she wasn’t going to have a choice; if she threatened to kill Drusilla, she lost the only bargaining tool she had to make Spike help her.

“And that’s it?” she said after a moment’s pause for thought, her arms folded as she looked back at the vampire before her. “I let you and Drusilla leave, and that’s it?”

“Certainly not much reason for _me_ to come back to this dump,” Spike replied with a slightly disdainful sniff. “With you and your sisters hanging around, it’s becoming too hot for the undead nightlife; add in the fact that you’ve got that training from the poof’s ‘better half’, and I’d have to be thick to come back. Once we’re done with Angelus, I’ll take her out of the country; you'll never hear from us again, I _bloody_ well hope.”

“Fine,” Paige said with a brief nod. “Get back to the mansion, make sure Leo is all right, and be ready to back me up when I make my move.”

Nodding, Spike turned around to walk towards the door of the apartment.

“One more thing,” Paige added, causing Spike to turn around and face her. “If Leo’s dead when I get there, Drusilla’s the first to go.”

After a final glare in her direction, Spike turned around and walked out of the apartment, leaving Paige standing silently in the room where she had spent the most magical night of her life only a few months ago.

This was it.

To stop all that was left of the man she loved from destroying the world, she’d just made a deal with the bad guys.

To say that she’d never imagined she’d be in this kind of position a year ago was a _serious_ exaggeration…

Shaking her head, Paige closed her eyes, orbed back to the manor…


	33. Paige Versus Angelus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope nobody minds my inclusion of my theory about how Angelus was ‘worthy’ to open Alcathla; I just never liked the fact that the show simply said “Angel’s the key” and left it at that with no more in-depth explanation

As she reappeared in the mansion, Paige was only slightly surprised to see Whistler still standing in the kitchen, sniffing casually at an empty bottle of sherry as he moved over to open the refrigerator as though looking for something.

“Whistler,” Paige said, nodding briefly at the man/demon/whatever before her; given that he’d been responsible for Angel entering her life in the first place, she was willing to let go him looking through their fridge for the moment. “What did you mean, the sword isn't enough?”

“You know,” Whistler muttered, as he studied the fridge before him, “raiding the fridge of a houseful of witches and an angel is like dating a nun; you’re _never_ gonna get the good stuff…”

“You mentioned something about ‘knowing how to use it’,” Paige continued, her arms folded as she glared at him. “What did you _mean_ by that?”

Pulling out a bottle of beer that Paige thought might have been left behind from Cole’s time in the mansion- he was the only one who drank beer even close to regularly; the sisters tended to only do their drinking at P3 and Leo tended to have beers only when he was socialising with their other male allies-, Whistler opened the bottle and took a quick swig before he turned to look at Paige.

“Angel-” he began as he closed the fridge.

“ _Angelus_ ,” Paige interjected; she might have to accept that Angel could never come back, but if she heard _one_ more person ‘mistake’ him for his soulless counterpart she was _definitely_ going to punch them.

“Right; Angel _us_ is the key,” Whistler said, automatically correcting his statement as he saw the glare Paige was shooting in his direction; he was actually rather grateful that she went to this much effort to make sure that he didn’t mistake Angelus’s actions for what his ensouled counterpart would have done. “His blood- the blood of a vampire that has known both humanity and evil like no other- will open the door to Hell. Once he removes the sword, Acathla opens his big mouth, creates a vortex, and then only Angelus's blood will close it; one blow will send 'em both back to Hell-”

“Hold on; how much blood are we talking here?” Paige asked, looking critically at Whistler. “I mean, y’know, will it just take a few drops, is Angelus going to have to cut his _arm_ off to unleash Hell on Earth, or something in between?”

“Just a few drops are needed to open it; after that, if you want to try and shut it, the bigger it gets the more blood it needs to close it down,” Whistler explained. “‘Course, I strongly suggest that you get there before the portal even _begins_ to open up, 'cause the faster you kill Angelus, the easier it's gonna be on you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Paige said simply. “Whatever else happens tonight, I’ll you this; I _am_ killing _Angelus_.”

“It's all on the line here, kid,” Whistler pointed out; Paige was briefly tempted to hit him at the implication that she didn’t register that part of the situation.

“I can deal,” Paige said simply as she picked up the sword that Leo had given her earlier, a grim expression on her face as she turned to look at the balance demon one last time. “All I need is a little time to get the feel for this thing, and I’m set.”

As she orbed out of the mansion- evidently intending to head somewhere where she could practise with the sword in private, now that the immediate question of where she’d need to go had been answered-, Whistler could only stare silently after her, shaking his head slightly wistfully.

He knew that she could probably pull it off- she _was_ a Charmed One who’d received training from the former Scourge of Europe, after all-, but whether she’d be able to go through with it all…

Well, that was a _totally_ different ball game; there was really no way to know _how_ things would play out when the time came for the final showdown.

Whistler just hoped that it all worked out; Angel might have originally been ‘meant’ to go and help out that Slayer- it had really looked like the line would go to the blonde girl, but then it went and picked that Jamacian chick, with her experience making the whole ‘vampire helps the Slayer train’ scheme kind of redundant-, but so far he had _definitely_ helping the Charmed Ones out in ways nobody could have predicted.

Whether it was going to be enough in the long run…

That, unfortunately, was something not even Whistler’s bosses knew; not even they could know _everything_ about the future, and the ‘ripples’ caused by Alcathla’s mere existence didn’t exactly help matters either…

* * *

  
As Spike crept into the mansion as silently as he could- a lot of effort to go to, but it was the only way to keep his regained mobility secret until the time came for him to show that he _wasn’t_ as helpless as everyone thought he was-, he allowed himself a brief relieved smile as he heard Angelus still talking to the Whitelighter; at least that sod was still alive (Or whatever Whitelighters were; could they really be called ‘alive’ given that they were originally people who’d snuffed it?).

“… but it’s over,” Spike heard Angelus say as he sat back down in his chair and began to wheel himself towards the room where Leo was being held; even if he couldn’t blow his cover, he could at least _try_ to do what he could to make sure the bugger lived until Matthews got here. “You’ve given enough. Now, let me make it stop.”

“ _Please_!” Leo’s voice gasped weakly (Another thing Spike was never clear on; even if Leo felt things the same way people did, how come _he_ had to breath?)

“Just tell me what I want to know,” Angelus said, as Spike came slightly around the corner and saw the older vampire kneeling in front of the Whitelighter, a probing glare on his face and the chain of the anti-orbing amulet that was keeping the Whitelighter ‘grounded’ just visible under his shirt.

“In order…” Leo gasped, the Whitelighter weakly looking Angelus in the eyes as he spoke, “to be worthy…”

“Yeah?” Angelus replied, his voice so low that even Spike’s ears could barely hear him.

“You must perform the ritual…” Leo gasped, before a slight smile crossed his face as he looked back at what Spike could only assume was the hopeful expression on Angelus’s face, “in a tutu.”

For a moment, Angelus simply glared back at Leo, the Whitelighter looking resolutely back at the vampire, before Angelus stood up.

“All right,” he sighed, glancing around the room, evidently looking for one of his minions. “Someone get the chainsaw.”

That definitely sounded like Spike’s cue to step in; he might not be sure if it was possible to _kill_ a Whitelighter with conventional weapons, but at the very least Matthews wasn’t likely to be happy if her brother-in-law came back in that kind of shape.

“Now, now,” he said, allowing a slight mocking tone to creep into his voice as he wheeled himself into the room, “don't let's lose our temper.”

“Keep out of it, sit 'n' spin,” Angelus growled.

“Look,” Spike said, glaring back at Angelus- seriously, the man’s need to cause pain was disturbing enough for a _vampire_ ; no wonder he’d hacked off so many people back in the day-, “you just start cutting him up, you’ll only take longer to get answers; even if it doesn’t kill him, you really think he’ll be more cooperative with his intestines hanging out than he is at the moment?”

For a moment Angelus continued to glare at Leo, before he turned to look back at Spike in a critical manner.

“Since when did _you_ become so levelheaded?” he asked pointedly.

“Right about the time you became so pig-headed,” Spike countered; disguise his response with his usual sarcasm and Angelus wouldn’t look into it enough to realise he was being played. “You have your way with him, you'll just take ages working out how to destroy the world, and I don't fancy spending the next month trying to get Whitelighter out of the carpet before he gives in. There _are_ other ways.”

“Such as?” Angelus asked, as he looked pointedly at the other vampire.

“Hmm…” Spike said, pretending to be lost in thought for a moment before he turned around to look behind him. “Drusilla? Sweetheart?”

As Drusilla walked into the room, a casual smile on her face that still made Spike long for her even after everything he’d seen her doing with Angelus, he allowed himself a small grin as he looked back at her.

“Do you want to play a game?” he asked, indicating the still-bound Whitelighter before them.

As Drusilla placed a hand on his shoulder and they turned to look at Angelus, Spike could almost convince himself that nothing had changed since the poof lost his soul again…

Then she turned to look at Angelus with a sickening smile, and Spike knew that things hadn’t changed; they’d just become _slightly_ more bearable without changing what he really wanted to change.

If he wanted things to go back to the way they were any time soon, he needed Matthews to get here _fast_ …

* * *

  
Leo could barely _believe_ how much pain this was in; he honestly thought that it had been less painful than this when he’d actually _died_. He wasn’t sure whether it was his Whitelighter status or the fact that Angelus was an expert at this whole ‘torturing people’ thing that was keeping him going even after everything he’d been through; either way, he was _definitely_ starting to feel the presence of those anti-orbing amulets.

 _God_ … he groaned, weakly straining against his bonds as he tried to look around for something he could use to escape. _This guy is an absolute_ butcher…

He wasn’t sure whether it was worse being magically or physically tortured; magic might be able to attack you a more directly spiritual and mental level than Angelus’s methods, but on the other hand this kind of torture was a lot more… _real_ than that…

“Leo?” a voice suddenly said, drawing his thoughts back to the current situation. “Can you hear me?”

“Wh… Piper?” Leo asked, blinking uncertainly as he looked at his wife as she stood before him, looking anxiously at him. “Wh-what are you…?”

“Not important right now; what _matters_ is that we need to get you out of here _fast_ ,” Piper said, as she crouched before him, anxiously examining his bonds while studying his injuries. “Did you tell Angelus anything?”

“No…” Leo replied, shaking his head weakly. “We… we have to get him away from Alcathla…”

“Why?” Piper asked, looking at him with renewed urgency. “Is he close to figuring it out?”

“ _Later_ ,” Leo hissed.

“Please, can you just tell me what we need to stop him _doing_?” Piper hissed. “Paige and Phoebe are doing what they can, but if we just knew _specifically_ what would be a bad thing to let happen we might be able to stop it… if you know what I mean…”

For a moment, Leo hesitated, confused and uncertain about whether or not he should answer Piper’s question…

But, in the end, he knew that she made a valid point; if the Halliwells knew what Angelus _couldn’t_ be allowed to do, their chances of stopping him doing it greatly increased.

“We have to get Angel away from Acathla,” he said finally, looking earnestly at the woman he loved

“Angelus _himself_?” Piper repeated, looking in surprise at him. “ _He’s_ the key?”

“H-his… his blood,” Leo gasped weakly, looking urgently at his wife. “He… he mustn’t…”

“Ssh,” Piper interrupted, raising her finger to his lips before she replaced the finger with her own lips. For a moment, Leo simply allowed himself to get lost in the glorious feeling of Piper’s lips pressed against his own, the knowledge that he would soon be free to live the life with her that he’d once thought he would never be able to live…

“ _Dru_!” a voice suddenly yelled.

As Leo’s eyes shot open, he could only stare in shock as Piper;s face… shifted, was the only term he could come up with… before it vanished, leaving only the smirking face of Drusilla as the insane vampire looked smugly at him.

“You taste nice,” she said simply.

Leo felt like throwing up.

Drusilla had hypnotised him… abused his love for his wife… made him feel violated even if they’d done nothing more than kiss… and tricked him into revealing the _one_ thing Angelus needed to know to unleash hell on Earth.

“Blood…” Angelus’s voice said from off to the side, prompting Leo to look up in shock at the sound, just in time to see Angelus and Spike standing- or sitting, in Spike’s case; a part of him couldn’t help but smile at the sight of a vampire in a wheelchair no matter how dire the situation was- off to one side. “Of course… the blood on my hands must be my own. I am the key that will open up the door. My blood. My life…”

He paused for a moment, looking contemplatively at Leo for a moment, before he shrugged dismissively. “OK; kill him.”

“Uh…” Spike began, raising a hand to grab Angelus’s arm as the older vampire turned to leave, “not meaning to rain on your parade, but what if he's lying?”

For a moment, Angelus paused, looking reflectively between Leo and Spike, before he nodded.

“Yeah, good point,” he said, glancing briefly back at Spike before he turned back to Leo. “Well, looks like you’re in luck; you get to actually _see_ me suck the world into Hell.”

As Angelus turned towards the door, he reached under his neck and removed the anti-orbing amulet, placing it on a hook near the door- it required multiple amulets in one place to effectively stop Whitelighters from finding a location like this, and Angelus was keeping most of them near him and Alcathla; with the magical energies that would be generated as Alcathla was awoken disrupting any other magic in the vicinity, Angelus would need to elave an amulet here to keep Leo immobilised- before he walked out of the room, pausing to glance back at Leo with a smile.

“Just like old times for you, huh?” he said, a casual smirk on his face as he looked at the Whitelighter. “You get to watch people you know die as a result of something you couldn’t do.”

With that, Angelus walked out of the room, Drusilla and Spike close behind him, leaving Leo to sit alone in his cell, helpless to prevent the coming apocalypse.

 _Oh God_ … he thought to himself in horror. _What have I_ done _…?_

* * *

  
As Paige stood grimly outside the building that Spike had identified as Angelus’s current residence, her hand tightly clasped around the sword that she had been practising with for the better part of the night, she was already wishing she was anywhere else but here.

 _This is it_ … she reflected grimly. _Here we go… all or nothing… my last chance to see whatever’s left of Angel before I send that demon all the way back to the Hell where he should have stayed_ …

God, why did she _do_ this? She finally has a real, genuine family- as much as she’d loved her adopted parents, there was never that real… _click_ she’d felt almost instantly with Piper and Phobe-, an actual purpose, and even managed to meet a really amazing guy, and now she had to _kill_ him because some sadistic gypsies couldn’t be bothered to come up with a clause that _wouldn’t_ mean Angel would go evil the second he stopped blaming himself for something that wasn’t even technically his fault?

It was official; if she had to kill Angelus- all that was left of the man who’d come to mean more to her in a matter of months than people she’d known for years from school-, she was _out_ of the witch game as soon as her sisters were able to make that kind of call.

She just…

She wasn’t sure if she could _cope_ with fighting more demons after having to kill Angel; what was the point of having the ability to do magic if she couldn’t give a great guy the chance to make up for his past?

Nodding resolutely to reaffirm her decision to herself, Paige entered the building via the front door on the right-hand side of the building- it was as unguarded as Spike had assured her it would be; after the damage he’d done last night Angelus doubtless wasn’t expecting anyone to be in a position to attack him this soon-, quickly scanning her immediate surroundings.

As Spike had told her, she was currently standing in a long corridor, with one large door on her left leading into the main part of the facility while a smaller door was located opposite. Paige could just about hear what sounded like Angelus’s voice behind the larger door, but right now she was more concerned with rescuing Leo; her witch/Whitelighter instincts didn’t sense a significant build-up of magic yet, so she doubted the ritual to awaken Alcatha had really made much progress yet.

Quickly hurrying towards the smaller door, Paige opened it- grateful that it wasn’t locked-, barely able to restrain a gasp of shock as she saw the bleeding, mangled form of Leo on the other side, tied down in a chair and with an object that she instantly recognised as an anti-orbing amulet on the wall near him.

“Oh God, _Leo_ …” she whispered, quickly yanking the anti-orbing amulet off the wall and throwing it to the ground; it was only slightly cracked, but Paige quickly remedied that by crouching down beside the amulet and crushing it under the hilt of her sword before she turned her attention back to cutting Leo’s bonds. “What did he _do_ to you…?”

“P… Paige?” Leo gasped, looking uncertainly back at her even as his wounds- and _God_ , that was a lot of blood on his shirt- began to close up right before her eyes, the more prominent wounds swiftly receding even as she continued to undo the ropes that held him down. “It… it _hurts_ …”

“Ssshhh…” Paige whispered, leaning in closer to make sure he heard her as she continued to untie him. “I’ve destroyed the amulet, but we need to get out of here fast; I’ve got to take Angelus out of the equation before things go-”

“He _knows_ ,” Leo hissed, looking urgently at his sister-in-law as she released the last bonds around his legs. “He knows how to release Alcathla; he’s performing the ritual _right now_!”

For a moment, Paige hesitated, momentarily torn between her original plan and how to accommodate this new information, before she shook her head resolutely.

As much as she hated it, she didn’t have a choice right now; Leo would just have to get out of here himself.

“OK,” she said, looking grimly at her brother-in-law as she indicated the door behind her. “You get out of here and get… somewhere where you can clean up; you go to Piper right now and you’ll end up with way too many questions about why you’ve got all that blood on you with that little actual injury.”

“But…” Leo began, as he looked uncertainly at her. “I can’t just… isn’t there…?”

“Look, don’t worry about me,” Paige hissed, instantly guessing what Leo was trying to say; evidently his wounds were still leaving him a bit woozy even as they healed. “I have a plan to take these guys out, but I need you to get somewhere safe _now_ if I’m going to do it; I can’t worry about you _and_ kill the deranged vampires, you know!”

For a moment Leo simply stared back at Paige, his eyes betraying his uncertainty and reluctance at her latest demand/request (Paige didn’t like to think of herself as ordering Leo about, but she couldn’t deny that she had still told him what to do; she might not be as experienced as her sisters at the magic game, but she was still their vampire-related expert), until he finally nodded.

“OK…” he said, looking weakly at Paige as he smiled encouragingly at her. “Good luck…”

With that, Leo closed his eyes and- after more of a pause than Paige was used to; either breaking the amulet hadn’t completely stopped its power or Leo was weaker than she had realised- orbed away, leaving Paige to turn around and walk out of the door, towards the larger one opposite.

Silently opening the door before her- fortunately it was in good condition; the last thing she wanted was to lose the edge of surprise because of a squeaky door-, Paige peeked her head through the gap, quickly taking in the scene before her. Angelus was standing in front of a statue that could only be Alcathla, accompanied by Drusilla, the still-wheelchaired Spike, and two other vampires that Paige didn’t immediately recognise, Angelus currently chanting in some language that Paige didn’t recognise only to stop as soon as Paige had seen him. For a moment Paige worried that she’d been heard, but then Drusilla stepped forward holding a knife and she realised that it was just part of the ritual.

The knife, more than anything else, made up her mind for her; if she didn’t attack now, there was a good chance that Angelus would open the portal.

She _couldn’t_ let him go that far; she _had_ to stop him _before_ he got the chance to awaken Alcathla. It was going to be hard enough to beat the bastard as it was, she didn’t want to have a time limit on top of everything else…

“Now, Alcathla,” Angelus said, as he took a knife from Drusilla and began to move it towards his palm, “you will be free.”

Paige didn’t hesitate; four vampires- particularly when two of them were as old as Drusilla and Angelus- weren’t exactly going to be easy to put down even with Spike’s ‘help’, and the situation would only get worse if Angelus awoke Alcathla. Before she could talk herself out of it, Paige had stepped forward, her sword raised, and slashed right through the neck of the nearest vampire, her target collapsing into dust even as Angelus and Drusilla turned to look at her.

“Hi,” Paige replied, lowering the sword as she looked at Angelus, trying to affect a casual attitude despite the familiar twisting in her gut as she looked at the face of the man she’d loved and failed to see the soul within him. “Is this a private party, or can anyone join in?”

“Paige, as much as I love your company, I really _don’t_ have time for you-” Angelus began in a bored tone of voice.

“You don’t have a lot of time _left_ ,” Paige countered, tapping the sword slightly against the floor as she glared at the three vampires before her (She couldn’t exactly count Spike given that he was _helping_ her right now; she knew she had nothing to worry about from him).

“Coming on kind of strong, aren’t you?” Angelus asked, smiling slightly as he spread his arms to indicate his remaining members. “You’re playing some deep odds here; do you really think you can take us all on?”

“No,” Paige replied, as Spike stood up behind Angelus. “I don’t.”

Before Angelus could realise what she meant by that, Spike had dealt him a hard blow to the back of the head with an iron bar that he must have found lying around the place.

As Angelus fell to the ground, Paige started to head towards a stunned Drusilla- if she could just knock the vampire out she might be able to get out of this without being tempted to stake anybody-, but then the remaining unidentified vampire lunged towards her, Paige only just managing to duck out of the way of the attack as she briefly glimpsed Spike continuing to beat Angelus with the bar. Glaring at the vampire before her even as she kept a part of her awareness focused on Drusilla, Paige thrust out at her remaining opponent with her sword, forcing him back a few crucial feet as she continued to swipe at him; the odds wouldn’t be in her favour in a close combat fight, even with Angel’s training, but if she could force him to keep his distance she _might_ just have a chance…

He stumbled slightly over a piece of what looked like a broken box, and Paige seized her chance; lunging forward, she slashed out with a powerful blow of the sword that sent the vampire staggering backwards with a massive cut on his chest, the wound almost appearing to smoke even as Paige looked at it. She wondered briefly if that was due to what Leo had told her about the thing having been blessed by the knight who killed Alcathla the last time had something to do with it, but then the vampire lashed out with a powerful kick that would have left her winded if she hadn’t instinctively attempted to orb- the anti-orbing amulets in the area stopped her from actually going anywhere, but her half-witch nature put her far enough ‘out-of-sync’ with the amulets for her to at least _try_ to orb-, allowing the kick to pass through her while knocking the vampire off-balance.

Before he could regain his footing and attack again, Paige had thrust forward with the sword, impaling him directly in the heart; stakes might be more effective no matter how close to the heart you got them, but Angel had told her more than once that if you stuck something sharp enough directly in the heart you could kill the vampire straight away (The fact that she was using a blessed weapon probably helped). As she spun around to look at the situation behind her, she was just in time to see Angelus cutting his palm with his dagger as Spike wrapped his arm around Drusilla as though he was trying to choke her; how a vampire could be _choked_ Paige had no idea, but right now she had more immediate priorities. Even as Angelus turned towards Alcathla, she ran forward, slashing at him with the sword, only for the vampire wearing the body of the man she loved to spin around and deflect the blade with his left hand as he glared at her.

“Oh, _so_ close!” he said, smirking at her as he raised his bloody hand while turning back towards Alcathla. “You _almost_ made it-”

Paige didn’t bother dignifying Angelus’s rant with a reply; lashing out with the flat end of the sword once more, she knocked Angelus’s arm away from the sword- if she was going to kill Angelus, she was going to make it _quick_ (The fact that she didn’t want to start cutting up Angel’s body like it was a slab of meat had _nothing_ to do with it)- before positioning herself between him and the statue, the blade brandished before her.

“Don’t even _think_ about, Angelus,” she growled, wishing she could ‘vamp out’ herself; she vaguely registered Spike carrying Drusilla out through a door behind Angelus, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

The guy was a vampire, after all; she should just be grateful that he’d helped her to bring the odds against her down to a more manageable level, even if he was bailing on her now when the going had reached its toughest.

“Oh, c’mon; you don’t _really_ think you’re going to _kill_ me with that thing, do you?” Angelus laughed, shaking his head as he stared mockingly at her. “I’m _going_ to wake Alcathla up…”

“Not if I send you to him first,” Paige countered, tightening her grip on the sword as she glared at the vampire before her even as she charged towards him. Despite only having the small dagger that Drusilla had passed to him earlier with which to defend himself, Angelus swiftly raised the aforementioned weapon as Paige launched her initial thrust at him, holding the weapon out at arm’s length to deflect Paige’s attacks with the sword even as she continued to force him further away from Alcathla. As they advanced around the now-empty warehouse interior, Paige vaguely registered Angelus’s attempts to kick her feet out from under her or launch a punch with his other hand, but whether from natural instinct or the combat knowledge she’d received from her old training with Angel, Paige always managed to just avoid the attacks, always managing to move slightly out of the path of the vampire’s blow even as she launched her own attacks with the sword.

She still hadn’t managed to launch her own blow against the vampire she had once loved, of course- he moved too rapidly for her to do more than scratch him, no matter what mystically-enhanced combat skills she might possess right now-, but she was doing some slight damage and he was still bruised from Spike’s earlier attack, while she was relatively fresh and uninjured; in terms of points, she had at least _some_ kind of advantage right now, at least.

When he finally managed to land a lucky punch to her chest, sending her staggering backwards as she dropped her sword, leaving her gasping desperately for more air, she couldn’t help but wish that superhuman strength was part of the package; no matter how much she trained, she would always have problems going up against something as old as Angelus...

Then she heard a rumbling sound, accompanied by the now-familiar sounds made when a sword moved through the air, and she realised that the situation had just become worse; Angelus must have made it to Alcathla while she was temporarily off-balance.

The portal was open.

Now she was _really_ operating on a time limit...

“Well,” Angelus’s voice suddenly said, breaking through Paige’s desperate gasps for oxygen as she heard footsteps advancing towards her, “looks like that’s everything for you, isn’t it? No weapons... no sisters... weakened powers... no hope.”

As the footsteps halted, Paige risked a brief glance ahead of herself and saw Angelus’s feet standing only a short distance in front of her; evidently he’d over-estimated how much time she’d need to catch her breath after that last attack.

“Take all that away,” Angelus’s voice continued, his tone displaying the casual arrogance that was only one of the many subtle ways in which he differed from Angel- Angel had always _known_ he was good at what he did; he just didn’t talk about it that much- as he walked closer to her, “and what’s left?”

As soon as she heard the sword move- it must have been the one that had kept Alcathla imprisoned before Angelus removed it; there wasn’t another convenient sword anywhere here after all-, Paige reacted; flipping herself around so that she was lying on her back, she reached up and grabbed Angelus’s sword before it could even touch her, clasping it directly between the palms of her hands as she looked up at him with a casual smile.

“Me,” she said simply.

Exerting a strength that even she had never known she possessed, Paige shoved the sword away from her face, sending Angelus staggering backwards a few feet as Paige leapt to her feet, kicking him in the chest before she ducked down long enough to grab her sword and start her attack again. A quick glance in the direction of Alcathla was all that Paige needed to simultaneously confirm her fears and her next course of action.

Angelus had taken the sword out of Alcathla and a small portal was already forming.

The only thing that could close that portal was the blood of the person who opened it.

In other words, she had to kill Angelus in _front_ of that thing as soon as possible.

Her eyes narrowed in resolve, Paige shifted herself into an almost automatic attack pattern, slashing and parrying away with her sword at the vampire before her, Angelus only just managing to prevent any of the attacks from hitting home as he fought back with his sword. Refusing to allow her foe even a moment, Paige ducked under his latest attack and kicked out with all her strength at his chest; the blow left her foot feeling sore from the sheer strength Angelus possessed, but it nevertheless accomplished its more central goal of forcing him closer to where Alcathla stood. Attempting a quick feint, Paige managed to land a quick slash on Angelus’s hand, causing him to release his grip on his sword just enough for her next blow to knock it out of his hand as he attempted to parry it. Following up the attack with a powerful slash to his chest that sent the vampire staggering back from the pain of the blessed weapon, Paige rounded off her assault with a high kick to his face, sending Angelus sprawling to the ground in front of Alcathla as he clutched the bleeding wound on his chest.

 _Say what you like about raw strength_ , Paige reflected as she stared at the face that had once belong to the man she loved, _but you can_ never _deny that surprise attacks have their place in combat as well_.

Even as she drew back her sword, however, she was unprepared for what happened next; right in front of her, Angelus suddenly let out a rapid gasp, as though he’d suddenly simultaneously regained the need to breath and lost all the oxygen in his body, his eyes glowing bright red before he collapsed to the ground, his shoulders shaking as he pressed his forehead to the stone floor.

 _What the_...? Paige thought, as she stared in confusion at the apparently-sobbing vampire before her, her sword raised but immobile as she waited for any sign of what this was about. _What the hell just happened_...?

Then Angelus looked up, his eyes confused and brimming with tears, and Paige knew what had just taken place even before he spoke.

“Paige?” Angel- _Angel_ \- whispered, looking at her in confusion. “W-what’s going on?”


	34. Witch Way Now?

Even as he spoke, Paige couldn’t quite bring herself to believe it.

It _couldn’t_ be true…

Angel _couldn’t_ be back; they hadn’t had _time_ to perfect the curse…

“Where are we?” Angel asked, looking uncertainly around himself as he slowly got to his feet, still staring shakily at her in a manner that made it clear he had no idea what was happening. “I-I don’t remember.”

As she silently stared at the vampire who had so recently been trying to kill her and suck the world into Hell- not necessarily in that order-, Paige realised she already believed him.

Not only was the confusion in his eyes too genuine to be any kind of deception- no matter how good an actor was, he wasn’t _that_ good-, but, more than that, his eyes…

The eyes that had for so long haunted her nightmares ever since Angelus had first looked at her with them, that dark night when she’d walked in on him threatening to kill Piper…

They were no longer filled with that horrific emptiness; they had regained the warm compassion that had drawn her to him all those months ago.

“A… Angel?” she whispered, lowering the sword as she looked at him.

“Paige…” Angel replied, as she stepped towards him and allowed him to wrap his arms around her, once again feeling the wonderful coolness of his body, soft and soothing after the sweat she’d worked herself into while fighting Angelus…

“I… I feel like I haven’t seen you in months…” Angel continued, confusion still the dominant emotion in his voice as he tightened his grip on her. “Oh god… everything’s so muddled… I…”

He sighed slightly, clearly trying to shake off his confusion, before he lowered his head slightly to softly kiss her shoulder.

“Oh, Paige…” he whispered.

For a moment, Paige felt like she could stand there forever, simply holding Angel- _Angel_!- in her arms once again, revelling in these moments when he didn’t remember what he’d done to be in this position…

Then her eyes fell on the slightly-rumbling Alcathla, just a few steps behind him, and Paige knew that she couldn’t do that.

Alcathla was about to wake up.

If she wanted to stop this before it got out of hand, she _had_ to act now…

“What’s happening?” Angel asked, stepping back slightly, confusion on his face as the rumbling continued; it couldn’t be long before Alcathla awoke.

“Shh…” Paige whispered reassuringly, as she raised one hand to brush her finger over his lips.

If things had already reached the point of no return… if putting Alcathla back to sleep would require more blood…

She’d do it.

Not just because it was her duty as a Charmed One, but because Angel would never be able to forgive himself if his demon caused the end of the world.

 _No_! Paige thought resolutely as she stepped back.

She wasn’t a killer by nature; no matter how much combat training Angel had given her, she would _not_ resort to killing something unless she was _certain_ she had to do it.

Killing demons and vampires were one thing; they were killers by _nature_ most- if not all of- the time, so it was a straightforward case of kill them before they could kill anyone else.

Killing someone who hadn’t done anything wrong… when there might still be _another_ way to save them…

Paige had to try it.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, still looking up at Angel as she leaned in and kissed him, her very being feeling like it was on fire once again as Angel’s familiar cool lips met hers, his own low body temperature cooling her as his lips and tongue massaged her own, her own tongue slipping around his mouth to find the familiar nooks and crannies that she’d been unable to explore since his curse was broken…

“I love you,” she whispered softly as she pulled back.

“I love you too,” Angel replied, briefly drawing Paige’s memory back to the last time he’d said those four words to her, the moment before they’d finally consummated their relationship, granting Angel the perfect happiness that neither of them had known was his nemesis…

 _NO_ , Paige told herself harshly.

She was _not_ going to reflect on that; the outcome to this encounter was _going_ to be different…

“Close your eyes,” she said simply.

As Angel closed his eyes, Paige tensed herself, took a hold of his hand, raised his arm, and then slashed at his sleeve- the shirt Angelus had been wearing was a simple black one that Angel had several of, so she doubted that he’d be that bothered about the damage-, raising her hand as soon as blood began to seep from the wound.

“Blood!” she yelled, watching as the blood from the cut turned into white light before she hurled it behind Angel onto Alcathla as the statue stood immobile, following it up by pushing aside as she thrust the sword- still stained with his blood from the scratch she’d just inflicted- into the statue. For a moment nothing happened, and then, after one last violent shudder- which briefly left Paige wondering if she’d failed-, the statue fell silent, the hideous stone face before her simply glaring silently at her once again, the sword in its chest and Angel’s blood splattered over its face.

“P… Paige?” a voice said from off to the side, prompting Paige to turn around to look at Angel once again, her heart nearly breaking at the confusion on his face at what she had just done.

If only she could prolong this moment when he _didn’t_ know what his demon had been doing since they’d last been together…

But she knew all too well that it wouldn’t last; Angel had told her that it had taken him a few minutes to remember Angelus’s crimes after he’d regained his soul the last time, and there was no reason to presume that wouldn’t be the case now.

“Angel…” she said, taking a deep breath as she looked at him, “it’s… well, a lot of stuff’s been happening lately…”

“What?” Angel asked, his tone sounding more assertive as he walked towards her, confusion still clear in his eyes even as he managed to regain his old composure. “What’s been ‘happening’ lately, Paige? What are we _doing_ here? The last thing I remember…”

His voice trailed off mid-sentence, his eyes widening in horror as he stared up at something that only he could see.

“Oh God…” Paige whispered, hurrying over to crouch down beside Angel as he fell to his knees, hands clutching his forehead as tears began to from his eyes once again. “Angel, you have to listen to me, it was a clause in your curse, it wasn’t your fault, you couldn’t have _known_ that would happen-”

“ _Don’t touch me_!” Angel yelled, shooting back to his feet as he looked at Paige in horror; Paige was almost certain that she saw Angel looking at her hands as though he thought she was carrying a stake. “How can you… I tried to _kill_ you, Paige! I tortured Leo… I threatened Piper… Hell, I was working with the _Source_ … How can you just… _sit_ there and act like it never happened?”

After a moment’s silence, Paige got back to her feet as she looked Angel directly in the eyes.

“You’re right,” she said simply. “I can’t forgive you.”

As Angel turned around as though he was about to leave, Paige grabbed his arm, turning Angel around to look at her once again, a confused expression on the face of the once-again ensouled vampire as he stared back at her.

“I can’t forgive you for doing all those things, because _you didn’t do them_ ,” the half-Whitelighter elaborated, looking at Angel with a slight smile on her face. “Angelus _isn’t_ you, Angel; doesn’t the fact that you’re feeling _sorry_ about what he did prove that? You share a body and a memory; that’s the be-all and end-all of what you two have in common.”

Walking forward slightly, Paige reached up to gently touch Angel’s cheek with the palm of her hand, subtly forcing him to look back up at her as she stared resolutely at him, allowing all the love she felt for him to shine through as she.

“And I don’t care about what you did as _him_ , Angel,” she continued, smiling softly at him as she spoke. “All I care about is what you do as _you_ … and I know that you would _never_ do anything like that to me or my family.”

Once again, there was a brief silence, the two of them simply staring into each other’s eyes, until, finally, Angel smiled slightly at her.

“You’re perfect, you know that?” he asked her, his eyes finally devoid of the cold malice that had always tainted Angelus’s when he had smiled at Paige during their various confrontations.

Paige chuckled in an embarrassed manner.

“I try,” she said simply, before another thought occurred to her and she looked sternly at her restored boyfriend. “Oh, and before you go all ‘We’re finished because I can’t let all that crap happen to us again’, I’d like to point out that we had some help while casting this; we called a member of the tribe who cursed you and she helped us ‘tweak’ the curse before we cast it to get rid of _that_ little loophole.”

Angel blinked.

“Wh… what?” he said, looking at her incredulously. “You… you _fixed_ the curse?”

“Well, it’s not like there’s no catch whatsoever- you need to consciously remember that the curse is there when you… y’know, get into that situation… otherwise it’s the same as it was before-, but that aside…” Paige explained, shrugging casually as she looked up at her boyfriend with a broad smile. “Your soul’s permanent now.”

Angel looked at her for a moment as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, before he suddenly lowered his head and pressed his lips against Paige’s once again. Paige didn’t even flinch slightly at the feel of Angel’s cool lips once again pressed against hers; she just reached up and clasped her arms tightly around his neck, unable to stop herself from smiling slightly as she felt his arms wrap around her once again.

It hadn’t been an easy few months, but she was finally back in Angel’s arms after thinking she’d never experience them again except when his body wanted to break her neck.

She’d stopped the world from going to Hell, and saved the soul of the most wonderful, caring, compassionate, tortured, courageous guy she’d ever met.

At last… _something_ had gone right in her witch-related life after all the crap she’d been through the last few months…

* * *

  
“So,” Piper said, as she looked uncertainly over at Jenny, “what was all _that_ about?”

After Jenny had regained consciousness shortly after Paige’s departure, the three women had set themselves up around the Romany woman’s bed in order to prepare the curse once again, Darryl collecting the necessary resources for them from the apartment, subsequently positioning himself outside the room to make sure that nobody came in to find them as they cast the spell. There’d been this rather weird moment when something seemed to try to… _possess_ Jenny in order to cast the curse, but with Piper and Phoebe acting as conduits, the spirit had been able to exert complete influence over Jenny, and the ritual had proceeded just as she’d originally written it.

“The… spirit?” Jenny asked, shrugging uncertainly as she looked over at the other two women. “I… I really don’t know, I’m sorry; I mean, it _seemed_ malevolent- from what little I was able to sense while you two held it back-, but beyond that…”

She shrugged. “I really just… I don’t know _what_ it was after.”

After a moment’s silence as the three women looked between each other, Piper shrugged.

“Well, what’s done on that front is done; all that matters is, did we get that soul back to where we wanted it to go, or didn’t we?” she said, as she looked over at the other two.

“Well…” Jenny began, looking uncertainly around at the two sisters before she spoke again. “Really, with something like this, the only way we can really _know_ whether or not it worked is if-”

The familiar sound of orbing suddenly filled the room, swiftly followed by the familiar white lights as Paige appeared, a broad grin on her face that neither Piper or Phoebe had seen since Angel had lost his soul, the familiar form of the vampire in question beside her, his eyes filled with the same warm glow that they hadn’t seen him possess since that night that he and Paige had left the mansion to stop Spike and Drusilla from assembling the Judge.

It was over.

Angel was back.

“Uh… hi,” the vampire in question said after a moment’s silence, looking uncomfortably around at the people who his alter ego had so recently sent to the hospital (Just because Angelus hadn’t actually attacked them himself didn’t mean they didn’t know he’d ordered it done). “I… I’m back.”

For a moment, Piper, Phoebe and Jenny stared silently back at the vampire before them, before Piper stepped forward.

“Good to have you back, Angel,” she said simply, as she held out a hand towards the vampire who’d- even if only or a few months- become one of the best bartenders P3 had ever had. “Seriously, we _really_ could have used your kind of help these last few months; your soulless counterpart is _not_ an easy guy to get along with.”

“What she said,” Phoebe added, smiling slightly at Angel even as she kept her arms folded as she stood alongside the bed where Jenny still lay, the gypsy woman looking uncertainly at the vampire before her. For a moment Piper thought about criticising her sister’s attitude- couldn’t she _see_ how much happier Paige was now, with Angel’s arm wrapped around her shoulders as the two of them stole a brief look into each other’s eyes before Angel turned to talk to Jenny?-…

But, at the same time, with Cole’s ‘death’ (Or whatever state he was in now; that bit where he’d switched Phoebe and Jackman around so that Jackman shot himself _still_ confused her) still a fresh wound, she supposed it was only natural that Phoebe might feel a bit… uncomfortable…

“Jenny Calendar?” Angel’s voice said, breaking into Piper’s train of thought as he stepped away from Paige to walk towards the bed where the dark-haired young woman lay. “I… I understand I have you to thank for my soul.”

“Well, when you get a call from the Charmed Ones to work on a curse, you don’t _exactly_ say ‘no’,” Jenny replied, smiling slightly back at Angel before she winced and raised a hand to her head. “Sorry, I’m still a little dazed; casting that kind of thing can take a _lot_ out of you…”

“I know,” Angel said as he stepped forward, reaching out to place a hand on Jenny’s shoulder. “Which is why I want to thank you for being willing to do it for me, even after what I did to your people-”

“What _Angelus_ did to my people was unforgivable, yes, but you’re _not_ Angelus,” Jenny interjected, looking pointedly back at Angel as she indicated where Paige was current standing behind him. “Your girlfriend over there made… well, let’s just say that she made a convincing argument for you and your demon being separate people.”

Angel could only shrug slightly at that as he turned back to smile at Paige.

“Yeah… she has a way of convincing you to do stuff,” he said, sharing a brief grin with Paige as he spoke (Piper had little doubt that he was remembering how Paige had convinced him to give ‘them’ a shot all those months ago; if Paige hadn’t been so insistent that she didn’t care about the vampire thing Piper sometimes wondered how long Angel would have stuck around after they learned his secret), before he turned back to look solemnly at Jenny. “So… what are you going to do now?”

“Well…” Jenny said, pausing thoughtfully for a moment before she continued. “I’ve already managed to convince most of my clan that this new curse does what we wanted to with the original one; now I just need to convince them to leave _you_ alone, and everything should be fine.”

“Hold on; why would they need convincing to leave _Angel_ alone?” Paige cut in, looking pointedly at Jenny. “He wasn’t in _control_ when Angelus killed those people; how often do I have to-”

“Let’s just say some people can be very… stubborn… and leave it at that,” Jenny said, looking apologetically at Paige as she shrugged slightly. “I managed to convince who I needed to convince in order to find the curse and make the necessary modifications to it, but there are still a few elders of my people who might need a bit more… time… to accept that Angel’s not the same person he was before…”

“Just say the world and we’ll be right down there to back you up,” Piper said, nodding resolutely at Jenny as she looked back at Angel. “Hey, you may brood _way_ too much for your own good at times, but you make my sister happy; that’s good enough for me.”

“Can I help it if he looks good when he’s brooding?” Paige asked, shrugging slightly as she leaned over to give Angel a brief kiss before she stepped back to look contemplatively at him. “OK, so he looks good with pretty much _any_ expression…”

Before Angel could make any kind of response to that- although Piper had little doubt that it would be an embarrassed one; she wasn’t sure if the fact that he hadn’t been able to look in a mirror for the last two centuries or so contributed to it, but Angel had _never_ taken comments about his physical appearance that well-, he and Jenny suddenly froze mid-motion.

Given that Piper had been keeping her hands folded throughout this current conversation, it didn’t take much effort to realise who was responsible for this latest turn of events.

“You _always_ having to drop in like that?” Paige asked, looking over at the newly-arrived Angel of Destiny with a raised eyebrow as he stood casually in one corner of the hospital room.

“Well,” the Angel of Destiny said as he looked casually around at the Charmed Ones, a nonchalant smile on his face as though he hadn’t heard Paige’s comment (Paige had a sneaking suspicion he’d heard her and had just decided not to respond to it), “still ready to retire?”

“Actually…” Phoebe said, looking briefly around the room before she finally shook her head, “I don’t think so any more. We saved an innocent woman- and simultaneously shut down a ruthless killer while giving a… _kinda_ decent guy a second shot-, and… it felt good.”

Glancing over at Paige, Piper wasn’t surprised to see her youngest sister smiling at that; even if Phoebe’s evident discomfort in his presence made it clear that she still didn’t quite accept Angel, she acknowledged that he wasn’t a bad guy.

It wasn’t great, but that was clearly enough for Paige right now.

“Besides,” Phoebe added, shrugging as though she was trying to be casual about this, “I got a little taste of what life would be like without my powers and I didn't like it at all.”

“What about you?” the Angel asked, turning to look at Piper; evidently he had gathered that Paige still had no interest in sacrificing her powers.

Looking over at where the vampire her baby sister loved stood in one corner of the room, Piper shook her head with a wistful smile.

“Majority rules, right?” she said, as she turned back to the Angel. “Might as well make it unanimous; what can I say, we’re masochists.”

“Falling for a vampire?” Paige said, a slight grin her face as she looked over at your sister. “You’ve got to have at least _some_ inclinations towards that kind of thing…”

Noting Piper and Phoebe’s sudden stares, Paige sighed. “He’s a bit of a biter when we’re involved, what did you _think_ I meant? Didn’t you ever notice I always wore shirts that _didn’t_ advertise my assets after my dates?”

“Uh… OK, moving on from _that_ issue,” Piper said, fighting to stop herself from blushing as she looked back at the Angel, “the fact is, Phoebe’s right when she said that this isn’t a choice we have to make; it’s who we are.

“You realise you won't get this opportunity again?” the Angel asked.

“We understand,” Phoebe confirmed with a nod.

“Very well,” the Angel said, nodding briefly at them before he turned to walk towards the door. For a moment, he paused as he walked past Angel, nodding thoughtfully as he studied the vampire, before he turned around again to look at Paige. “You two have a _very_ fascinating destiny ahead of you, you know…”

“Should I be worried?” Paige asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked at the Angel with a slightly uncertain smile.

“I can’t say,” the Angel replied, even as he gave Paige a soft, small smile. “Just remember this; your feelings for him are _very_ genuine, just as his are for you.”

With that said, the Angel turned to look at Piper. “On the topic of destinies, you might like to know, keeping or losing your powers doesn’t affect yours and Leo’s personal one.”

“What?” Piper asked, looking in confusion at the Angel.

“You’ll find out soon,” the Angel replied, glancing down at Piper’s stomach before he turned around to head for the door of their hospital room.

“Oh my God…” Phoebe whispered, as she looked at Piper’s stomach.

“What?” Piper asked.

“Don’t you get it?” Phoebe said, indicating Piper’s stomach with a broad grin. “You’re pregnant!”

Piper barely even had time to blink before Paige and Phoebe had wrapped their arms around her, Phoebe all but shouting ‘Hellos’ into her chest while Paige simply squealed for joy (Not, Piper freely admitted, that she was making that much sense right now).

 _Oh my God_ … she mused to herself, barely even registering the Angel’s disappearance as Angel and Jenny turned to look in confusion at the three sisters (Who, from their perspective, the part of Piper’s mind that wasn’t completely shell-shocked noted, had just moved several feet without anyone seeing them moving). _I’m pregnant… I’m pregnant… I’m_ pregnant…

Angel was back to normal, Angelus was gone, her sister was no longer the Queen of Evil, the world hadn’t been sucked into Hell, and she was _pregnant_ …

It was official; life had _finally_ decided to cut them a break.


End file.
